Earlier this month, The Travel mentioned Chicago Union Station – along with Baltimore's Penn Station – as being one of two American Amtrak stops that needs a revamp. "Much of the [Chicago] station’s infrastructure feels outdated and disconnected," the website noted. "The lower-level concourses, where most passengers navigate, lack the charm and appeal of the main hall... The station’s confusing layout and aging facilities often frustrate travelers."
Fortunately, some upgrades to the Windy City's Union Station are already in the works. Starting this year, Amtrak is conducting a $418 million renovation of the stop, including larger platforms and a rehab of the main concourse, as well as bike improvements. It's all part of the Chicago Hub Improvement Program, which was announced in August 2023.
But according to the Chicago-based High Speed Rail Alliance, in addition to Amtrak and the State of Illinois' current plans, further steps are needed to modernize rail service at the stop, which would fuel the Midwest economy. Last Friday, the alliance's Executive Director Rick Harnish gave the online talk, "Fixing Chicago Union Station," discussing five key upgrades needed to help the facility be all that it can be. He stated the goal of having the station accommodate ten times as many passengers as it does today, over 38 million Amtrak and Metra riders a year, in order to serve as a future high-speed rail hub.
"If we get a lot more people on trains and busses, our cities will be financially healthier," Harnish said during the presentation. "They will be physically healthier because you're not spending a lot of money and resources [on] your two-ton mobility device. And walking is healthier for people in general, and once, as you get buildings closer together, because you don't have parking lots, you don't have to put as much pipe in the ground for utilities and wires and safety... It's really about making it easier for people to connect face to face, more often, because that's when the important stuff happens."
Next, Harnish discussed the five essential fixes that need to take place, with the first being a new concourse. "Amtrak started working on that... about five to ten years ago, they started working on a new concourse, and then that project was put on hold. But they are again moving to push it forward and have been doing a lot of planning work on that over the last couple of years." Harnish has been a part of that effort.
"So, Amtrak has a cool idea, which is to... get [the green modernist building on the north side of Jackson Boulevard west of the Chicago River] and then make it open to the sunlight and have a really good, high-class lounge above on the floor above," Harnish said.
"That's a pretty interesting idea. I'm not against it, but again, does that get us to ten times the number of people coming through this station?... Maybe it does, but... at some point, they're going to need to make it a public [planning] process. We need to make sure that they can continue that planning process, and we need to support the planning money that they've got around moving this kind of concourse idea forward."
The second fix would a station annex. Currently, Amtrak is converting a former mail platform at the station for passenger use. Harnish would also like to see them add a direct entrance down to that platform. He thinks that is crucial because otherwise it may take passengers an additional 15 minutes to access the new platform from the main station.
Harnish already has numerous suggestions as to where the entrance could be location. "It could be from the lobby of the new post office," said Harnish. "It could be from the south end of the old post office, from the north end. Or it could be from underneath 300 South Riverside... But we need to really amp up the pressure to make this happen at the city and state level because I think it's really urgent to keep the service growing at the rate it can grow."
The third and fourth fixes are related to one another. The third is Through Running, making several investments in the through tracks to allow trains to run through the station. There's a challenge with balancing since many more routes are coming from the south side than the north side.
The other challenge is that the best two routes don't go to Union Station, but to the Ogilvie Center. Therefore, the fourth fix is creating an Ogilvie Connection.
The fifth fix is electrification. Harnish said Union Station was designed to have high-level boarding and electrification. The issue is that the designs of Amtrak Superliners and Metra's bilevel Gallery Cars take up a lot of space designed for electrification. Harnish said it would be challenging, but electrification could be dones with a 15000-volt DC wire.
"The point of this is we need to start thinking about Union Station electrification and to get that started now," Harnish said. "We don't have to necessarily believe that we'll have wires all the way to Milwaukee to Madison to Detroit to Indianapolis, to Cincinnati and St Louis. We should have electric wires all that way, but we don't have to do it to get started."
"Those are the five things that I think we need to push the State of Illinois hard on getting done," Harnish concluded. "Push the [Trump] administration hard on getting this stuff done. You know, if [they] want to be a big infrastructure administration, this is a place to do that."
A full video of the talk is embedded above.
Did you appreciate this post? Streetsblog Chicago is currently fundraising to help cover our 2025-26 budget. If you appreciate our reporting and advocacy on local sustainable transportation issues, please consider making a tax-deductible donation here. Thank you.
