Union Station (Pittsburgh)

Infobox Station
style=Amtrak
name=Pittsburgh

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image_size=
image_caption=
address=1100 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
line=rail color box|system=Amtrak|line=Capitol Limitedrail color box|system=Amtrak|line=Pennsylvanianrail color box|system=PLR|line=42S
other=Port Authority of Allegheny County
platform= 3 + 1 disused
tracks=
parking=
bicycle=
passengers=120,188
pass_year=2007
pass_percent=1.2
opened=
rebuilt=
ADA=
code=PGH
owned=Amtrak
zone=
services=s-rail|title=Amtrak

Union Station or Pennsylvania Station (commonly called "Penn Station" by locals) is a historic train station at Grant Street and Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

History

Unlike many union stations built in the US to serve the needs of more than one railroad, this facility connected the Pennsylvania Railroad with several subsidiary lines; for that reason it was renamed in 1912 to match other Pennsylvania Stations.

The station building was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and built 1898–1903. The materials were a grayish-brown terra cotta that looked like brownstone, and brick. Though Burnham is regarded more as a planner and organizer rather than a designer of details, which were left to draftsmen like Peter Joseph Weber, the most extraordinary feature of the monumental train station is his: the rotunda with corner pavilions. At street level the rotunda sheltered turning spaces for carriages beneath wide low vaulted spaces that owed little to any historicist style. Above, the rotunda sheltered passengers in a spectacular waiting room. Burnham's firm went on to complete more than a dozen projects in Pittsburgh, some on quite prominent sites. The rotunda is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

The restoration of Union Station in the mid-1980s converted the office tower into condominiums. The waiting room, no longer open to the public, was transformed into a lobby for the condominiums, and the paint cleaned off the great central skylight.

Current passenger service

Union Station continues to serve as an active railway station. It is the western terminus of Amtrak's "Pennsylvanian" route and is along the "Capitol Limited" route. For getting to and from Pittsburgh by train, the former route is considered to be far more useful, as the latter passes through Pittsburgh late at night and very early in the morning. Until 2005, Pittsburgh was served by a third daily train, the "Three Rivers" (a replacement service for the legendary "Broadway Limited"), an extended version of the "Pennsylvanian" that terminated in Chicago. Upon its cancellation, the "Pennsylvanian" and "Capitol Limited" marked the first time in Pittsburgh's railway history that the city was served by just two daily passenger trains.

Union Station's Amtrak station code is PGH.

PAT Bus Connections

*3L, 3M, 42S, 58C, 58P, 58V, 63A, 63B, 68A, 68B, 68D, 68F, 68G, 68J, 73B, 78A, 78C, 78E, 83B, 88A, 93A, AV, AVN, EBA, EBS, EBX, G, GR, HP, LP, P, PG, T, U, & W

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References

External links

* [http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/burnham/burnham5.html Images of Union Station, Pittsburgh]
* [http://www.library.cmu.edu/Research/ArchArch/burnham.html Burnham's papers at the Carnegie Mellon Library]
* [http://www.portauthority.org/PAAC/Portals/guideways/eastbus/penn.html Port Authority of Allegheny County Station Info]
* [http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/pittsburgh.htm Pittsburgh Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide -- Train Web)]