The Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center, also known as Gateway Station, is a rail and bus terminal station in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Opened in 2008 and operating 24 hours a day, it serves

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

trains and

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...

and

Burlington Trailways Burlington Trailways is an inter-city bus company based in West Burlington, Iowa. History Burlington Trailways was founded in 1929 as the Burlington Transportation Company, a subsidiary of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. It started ...

interstate buses.

's largest rail transportation station, it is located one block east of

St. Louis Union Station St. Louis Union Station is a National Historic Landmark train station in St. Louis, Missouri. At its 1894 opening, the station was the largest in the world that had tracks and passenger service areas all on one level. Traffic peaked at 100,000 ...

. Gateway Station cost $31.4 million to build. and after more than a year of delays, it fully opened November 19, 2008. The station's unique design has won several awards, including 2009 ''St. Louis Construction News and Real Estate''s Regional Excellence Award, 2008 Best New Building by the ''

Riverfront Times The ''Riverfront Times'' (''RFT'') is a free progressive weekly newspaper in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri, that consists of local politics, music, arts, and dining news in the print edition, and daily updates to blogs and photo galler ...

'', and the 2009 Award of Merit -

Illuminating Engineering Society The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), formerly the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), is an industry-backed, not-for-profit, learned society that was founded in New York City on January 10, 1906. The IES's stated m ...

Illumination Awards.

Transportation

Gateway Station serves as a

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...

hub for Amtrak, Metrolink, and Greyhound.

Amtrak

Of the 13 Missouri stations served by Amtrak, St. Louis was the busiest in FY2017, seeing an average of over 1,000 passengers daily. The station is served by Amtrak's

Missouri River Runner The ''Missouri River Runner'' is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak between Gateway Transportation Center in St. Louis and Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. The eastern half of the route runs largely along the right bank of th ...

Lincoln Service The ''Lincoln Service'' is a higher-speed rail service operated by Amtrak that runs between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train is a part of the ''Illinois Service'' and is partially funded by the Illinois Department of Transp ...

, and the

Texas Eagle The ''Texas Eagle'' is a daily passenger train route operated by Amtrak between Chicago and San Antonio in the central and western United States. Prior to 1988, the train was known as the ''Eagle''. Trains #21 (southbound) and 22 (northbound) ...

, with a total of 14 trains daily. All but the Texas Eagle originate or terminate at the station.

MetroLink

Gateway Station is next to the 1993-built

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

MetroLink station, which serves both of the system's lines, the Red Line and Blue Line. It takes about 30 minutes to travel to

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the primary commercial airport serving metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Commonly referred to as Lambert Field or simply Lambert, it is the largest and busiest airport in the state of ...

's Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 via the Metro Red Line. The Transportation Center would also be the hub for the two proposed St. Louis Commuter Rail lines.

Bus transportation

Intercity bus services are provided by Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach,

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

and

Megabus Megabus may refer to: *Megabus (Europe), a low-cost coach service with services in Europe owned by ComfortDelGro. *Megabus (North America) Megabus, branded as megabus.com, is an intercity bus service of Coach USA/ Coach Canada operating in the ...

Previous Amtrak facilities in St. Louis

Created in 1971, Amtrak originally operated from

. However, when it became apparent that there were no longer enough trains serving St. Louis to justify the use of such a large facility, Union Station was abandoned in November 1978. Amtrak then moved to a modular structure two blocks east, at 550 S. 16th St; the new station was originally approved on a site west of Union Station in 1976, with a budget of $6.4 million. Intended for temporary use, this station – soon dubbed "Amshack" – remained in service for 26 years, even after Union Station reopened and long past the end of its useful life. On December 20, 2004, Amtrak moved across the street to 551 South 16th Street, a masonry and steel "interim" structure built at an estimated cost of $600,000. The building now houses Amtrak operating and mechanical crews.

References

External links

Status of Amtrak's Texas Eagle trains through St. Louis

{{St. Louis MetroLink Transit centers in the United States Rail in St. Louis Amtrak stations in Missouri Railway stations in the United States opened in 2008 Transportation buildings and structures in St. Louis Downtown West, St. Louis