Chicago Stations Question - Consolidation of Stations

[RoyPBower]

As we know, Amtrak moved all of its trains to Chicago Union Station shortly after taking over rail passenger service. Although it is a shame that none of those other stations survive, at least to the best of my knowledge, the move certainly improved the ability of passengers to easily make connections to other trains. My questions is, why did the other roads not consolidate their operations all in one station? It would seem to make sense financially especially by the sixties. Does anyone have the answer or wish to conjecture? 

[Bobster]

Roy,

  I will try the conjecture route and will try to be breif and somewhat simplistic.

  1)  Capacity - when rail power was at its peak no one station was big enough.

  2)Then, probably most important, there is a pride thing. For an example - New York Central and Rock Island with LaSalle St. Station got you "farther into the business distrct".  New York Central's ad showing its great stream fleet with the Chicago Board of Trade looming behind LaSalle St. Station comes to mind.  Granted it was only a block or two but advertising people didn't mention that in the ad I'm thinking of.  Then how would you like to work out of your competitor's station?

As passenger rail transportation waned what you suggest might have worked.  Yet even today Chicago's commuters leave from several different stations.

Well this is my 2 cents.  I'm kind of glad that each station existed though because that is part of what makes the Chicago rail history so interesting.

Happy railroading,

Bob 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Mayor Richard J. Daley had long pushed for station consolidation in part to free up a lot of real estate south of the Loop for development, which pretty much came to pass after May 1, 1971.  As mentioned above, traffic volume probably made it unlikely until about the early to mid-60's.  Grand Central Station at Wells and Harrison was probably the only station closed prior to Amtrak in which the trains moved to other stations.  SOO moved the Laker from Grand Central to Central Station in 1963.  The train was discontinued shortly thereafter.  C&O/B&O moved to North Western Station (not as improbable as it sounds) in about 1969 and the station was closed.

PC moved its ex-NYC schedules from La Salle St. Station to Union Station in 1969 although the Big Four schedules stayed at Central Station.

[daveklepper]

C&O/B&O use of Northwestern was pretty terrible, one got a Cooks tour of Chicago with the inbound Capitol Limited going way out west before turning north then east and then south.   Compair schedules before and after the move.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

C&O/B&O use of Northwestern was pretty terrible, one got a Cooks tour of Chicago with the inbound Capitol Limited going way out west before turning north then east and then south.   Compair schedules before and after the move.

The only part of the routing that changed was on the West Side.  The original inbound routing stayed on the B&OCT and turned east near 18th and Western.  After the changeover, inbound C&O/B&O trains continued north on a C&NW secondary line just west of Western Avenue and swung east on the West Line into North Western Station. 

B&O always had a convoluted passenger route into Chicago.  After crossing the Calumet River, the trains would swing west onto the RI South Chicago Branch and part of the Suburban Line before picking up what is now known as the Blue Island Subdivision of CSX near 89th and Damen to swing north, roughly paralleling Western Avenue to the route described above.  Look at some old C&O/B&O passenger timetables which show a South Chicago stop at about 93rd and Commercial and a 63rd Street stop at about 63rd and Claremont (near St. Rita HS).  Also look at B&OCT's map in an older issue of the Official Guide.

[ZephyrOverland]

There were a number of proposals for consolidating (or at least reducing the number of) stations in downtown Chicago.  The city was keen on consolidating railroad operations in the Loop because of the development possibilities of what would have been the former railroad properties south of the loop.  I have in my collection a publication produced by the City of Chicago ca. 1933-34 of a City proposal to consolidate operations of Grand Central Station, Dearborn Street Station and La Salle Street Station into a new station development that would have been located at Michigan and Randolph, where the Prudential Building exists today.  There are a number of maps on how the affected railroads would be able to reroute their trains to the new location (using Illinois Central tracks), a number of arial photographs of the freed up land that would exist by consolidating operations of the three terminals and plans of a proposed station on this site (which looks curiously like the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.) 

I recalled seeing a number of years ago another station consolidation proposal developed by the City in the 1950's which at least involved Dearborn Station, the rest of the proposal I do not recall off the top of my head.

[wjstix]

One problem with the current situation is the trackage around the station (and the station itself?) is owned or operated by the Chicago-area commuter RR system. I remember being on the Empire Builder a few years ago and arriving in late afternoon and having to sit for an hour a couple blocks from the station waiting for an opening between the afternoon rush of commuter trains to get into the station. Apparently some people missed their connections, luckily I had booked our connection for a late enough train going east that we made it OK.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

One problem with the current situation is the trackage around the station (and the station itself?) is owned or operated by the Chicago-area commuter RR system. I remember being on the Empire Builder a few years ago and arriving in late afternoon and having to sit for an hour a couple blocks from the station waiting for an opening between the afternoon rush of commuter trains to get into the station. Apparently some people missed their connections, luckily I had booked our connection for a late enough train going east that we made it OK.

Chicago Union Station is currently owned by Amtrak.  Metra is a tenant.

[daveklepper]

Who runs the tower?   Who controls the dispatching?

[wjstix]

Apparently they (Amtrak) doesn't own the track though. When we stopped the conductor came on the PA system and announced something to the affect that "Metra owns the tracks, so we can't enter the station until they give us permission".

[nanaimo73]

Apparently they (Amtrak) doesn't own the track though. When we stopped the conductor came on the PA system and announced something to the affect that "Metra owns the tracks, so we can't enter the station until they give us permission".

Amtrak does own about two miles of track heading south from the station. The Empire Builder comes in from the north, on the former Milwaukee Road, which is owned by Metra all the way to Rondout on the EB route.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'm not absolutely sure of this, but I believe that Chicago Union Station Co. owned the northern approach tracks up to Western Ave., where it connected with MILW and the PRR Panhandle line.  At any rate, the Empire Builder is operating on Metra trackage as far north as Rondout.

[Hatchetman]

Dearborn station is still standing. It is a mixed office/retail space now. Little of the original character of the interior remains. The Grand Central location is still a vacant lot 40 years after they tore it down.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Dearborn station is still standing. It is a mixed office/retail space now. Little of the original character of the interior remains. The Grand Central location is still a vacant lot 40 years after they tore it down.

The River City development was built on the former site of Grand Central although it doesn't abut the streets like the station building.

[Hatchetman]

Dearborn station is still standing. It is a mixed office/retail space now. Little of the original character of the interior remains. The Grand Central location is still a vacant lot 40 years after they tore it down.

The River City development was built on the former site of Grand Central although it doesn't abut the streets like the station building.

Pictures I have seen seem to put it very near the corner of wells and harrison. river city is at least a block south of there. do you remember it?  

 

[RRKen]

Dearborn station is still standing. It is a mixed office/retail space now. Little of the original character of the interior remains. The Grand Central location is still a vacant lot 40 years after they tore it down.

The River City development was built on the former site of Grand Central although it doesn't abut the streets like the station building.

Pictures I have seen seem to put it very near the corner of wells and harrison. river city is at least a block south of there. do you remember it?  

 

You would not be trying to milk this thread would you?

[RoyPBower]

Dearborn station is still standing. It is a mixed office/retail space now. Little of the original character of the interior remains. The Grand Central location is still a vacant lot 40 years after they tore it down.

Wow, I thought they were all torn down except CUT. How does the exterior of Dearborn look now?

[Hatchetman]

It looks pretty much original. Just search google images for dearborn station. All the tracks that led up to it are gone though.

[al-in-chgo]

It is true that town houses exist where Illinois Central's Central Station once existed, not to be confused with Chessie's Grand Central farther in. 

Amtrak's consolidation has not been without some headaches.  When I took it about 20 years ago, the City of New Orleans had to pull out of Chgo/Union with us passengers riding backward, then the train would make a HUGE wye movement down by the river, then pick its way over other sets of tracks and finally wind up on the old I.C. main right around where McCormick Place is today.  IOW in the Amtrak era, it took us about 20 minutes for the City of N.O. to get to the main line, which could have been reached in seconds from the old setup. 

Why two I.C. terminals in Chicago?  The one long-gone one was for steam (later diesel); what is now called the Millenium Station was built for electric (today's Metra Electric), although it is possible under some conditions to come in with a diesel attached (CSS&SB does that at rush hours sometimes.)  - a.s. 

[Anonymous]

You're right Al (in Chgo), using the Airline to get to the IC tracks is a pain. Guess we shoud call 'em the CN tracks now.

But in the old days, the Chessie and B&O spent a LOT of time getting from Grand Central Station to Indiana.

Going west to somewhere around Western Avenue before going south is just LITTLE bit out of the way.  And then you get to wind your way through a jumble of Rock Island suburban tracks (to Blue Island) just north of Blue Island  before you can get to your own tracks.

Rather slow going, it seemed.

Art 

[al-in-chgo]

You're right Al (in Chgo), using the Airline to get to the IC tracks is a pain. Guess we shoud call 'em the CN tracks now.

But in the old days, the Chessie and B&O spent a LOT of time getting from Grand Central Station to Indiana.

Going west to somewhere around Western Avenue before going south is just LITTLE bit out of the way.  And then you get to wind your way through a jumble of Rock Island suburban tracks (to Blue Island) just north of Blue Island  before you can get to your own tracks.

Rather slow going, it seemed.

Art 

Well, I guess that's the problem with nostalgia:  we tend to remember the highlights rather than the mundane -- the poky trains, the delays, etc.  Of course, by the time I moved up here in 1980, the other passenger terminals were either gone or going.  A real pity that LaSalle St. Station got knocked down before the preservationists had much of a go at it.