Union Station (or Pennsylvania Station, commonly called Penn Station) is a historic train station in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It was one of several passenger rail stations that served Pittsburgh during the 20th century (other stations included the

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Station The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Station, now Landry's, Inc.'s the Grand Concourse restaurant in Station Square Plaza in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a building constructed in 1898. Into the 1960s, the station was the depot for the passenger ra ...

, the Baltimore and Ohio Station and Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal), and it is the only surviving station in active use. The historic station was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and built from 1898 to 1904. The station's rotunda was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, followed by the entire building in 1976. In the 1980s, the Burnham station building was converted to apartment use, while Amtrak moved to an annex on the building's east side.

History

The current station replaced the original Union Station destroyed in 1877. Unlike many union stations built in the U.S. to serve the needs of more than one railroad, this facility connected the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

with several subsidiary lines; for that reason, it was renamed in 1912 to match other Pennsylvania Stations. Thus, ''Union Station'' is a misnomer, as other major passenger rail carriers served travelers at other stations. For instance, the

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

used

, the Wabash Railroad used Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal, and the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

used both the Baltimore and Ohio Station and the

. The station building was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and built between 1898–1904. The materials were a grayish-brown terra cotta that looked like

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

, and

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

. 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 Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, 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

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

s 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 completed more than a dozen projects in Pittsburgh, some on quite prominent sites. The rotunda is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Service began at the station on October 12, 1901. On January 3, 1954, the

announced a $ ( dollars) in expansion and renovation for the complex. To the beginning of the 1970s, the station remained a major stop for several of the PRR's leading east-west trains: '' Broadway Limited'' (Chicago-New York), ''

Manhattan Limited The ''Manhattan Limited'' was a passenger train of the Pennsylvania Railroad which served the Chicago—New York City route. History The ''Manhattan Limited'' was originally the ''Seashore Limited'', an eastbound-only train which was rena ...

'' (Chicago-New York); ''

Penn Texas The ''Penn Texas'' was a named passenger train of the Pennsylvania Railroad that ran from New York City's Pennsylvania Station to St. Louis' Union Station from 1948 to 1970. The train also had a branch from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Washington, ...

'' (St. Louis-New York) and ''

Spirit of St. Louis The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlant ...

'' (St. Louis-New York). Hugh llewelyn 4296 (5961576142)

By the late 1970s the Penn Central Corporation was accepting bids for the complex and it was purchased by the US General Services Administration. There were proposals in 1978 to make the structure into a federal office building, a new city hall and a senior citizens apartment building. Amtrak proposed that the whole structure remain a train station and rail offices. In 1974, the County Council proposed having the station be the site of the then-planned

David L. Lawrence Convention Center The David L. Lawrence Convention Center (DLLCC) is a convention, conference and exhibition building in downtown Pittsburgh in the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is served by two exits on Interstate 579. The initial David L. Lawrence ...

. The Buncher Development Company had an option to buy the property as late as 1984. A $20 million restoration of Union Station began in 1986 to convert the office tower into apartments. It is now called ''The Pennsylvanian'' and opened to residents on May 23, 1988. The concourse, which is no longer open to the public, was transformed into a lobby for commercial spaces on the ground floor and the paint cleaned off the great central skylight. The rotunda, which once offered shelter for carriages to turn around, is now closed to vehicular traffic; modern cars and trucks are too heavy for the brick road surface and risk caving in the roof to the parking garage below it.

Current passenger service

Union Station continues to serve as an active railway station, but through an annex on the Liberty Avenue side of the building. It is the western terminus of Amtrak's ''

Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian may refer to: * A person or thing from Pennsylvania * Pennsylvanian (geology) The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS geologic timesca ...

'' route and is along the '' Capitol Limited'' route. Until 2005, Pittsburgh was also serviced by the '' Three Rivers'' (a replacement service for the legendary '' Broadway Limited''), an extended version of the ''Pennsylvanian'' that terminated in Chicago. Its cancellation marked the first time in Pittsburgh's railway history that the city was served by just two daily passenger trains (the ''Pennsylvanian'' and ''Capitol Limited''). Union Station's

Amtrak station code This is a list of train stations and Thruway Motorcoach stops used by Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation in the United States). This list is in alphabetical order by station or stop name, which mostly corresponds to the city ...

is PGH.

Architecture

In September 1978, '' The New Yorker'' art critic Brendan Gill proclaimed that Pittsburgh's Penn Station is "one of the great pieces of Beaux-Arts architecture in America... ne of thesymbols of the nation."

Bus rapid transit

Pittsburgh Regional Transit operates a

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

station served by the

Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway The Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway is a two-lane bus-only highway serving the city of Pittsburgh and many of its eastern neighborhoods and suburbs. It was named after Martin Luther King Jr. in recognition of the eastern portion of the route ...

. In 1988, the transit agency opened a light rail station at the site, operating regular shuttle service to Steel Plaza, as well as two 42S afternoon rush-hour trains that terminated at the station. However, the line was difficult to integrate into other services, since it used a portion of an old single-tracked former Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel. This tunnel travels beneath the US Steel Tower, and the building's structural supports are on each side of the tunnel, prohibiting the installation of a second track. 19940529 01 PAT LRT, Penn Station, Pittsburgh (5247864668)

19940529 01 PAT LRT, Penn Station, Pittsburgh (5247864668)

The shuttle service was discontinued in 1993, but the two 42S afternoon rush-hour trains continued to serve the station until 2007. Pittsburgh Regional Transit did not issue an official reasoning for the reduction, and later discontinuation, of service; however, it may be attributed to the aforementioned infrastructure limitations as well as limited ridership. Since 2007, the station has seen occasional use, mostly for charters or special events, such as part of the agency's detoured transportation routes following Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011 and as part of the "Railvolution" transit convention in October 2018.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus connections

*1 - Freeport Road *11 - Fineview *39 - Brookline *40 - Mount Washington *44 - Knoxville *P1 - East Busway All Stops *P2 - East Busway Short *P7 - McKeesport Flyer *P10 - Allegheny Valley Flyer *P12 - Holiday Park Flyer *P13 - Mount Royal Flyer *P16 - Penn Hills Flyer *P17 - Lincoln Park Flyer *P67 - Monroeville Flyer *P68 - Braddock Hills Flyer *P69 - Trafford Flyer *P71 - Swissvale Flyer *P78 - Oakmont Flyer

Suburban transit connections

Beaver County Transit Authority The Beaver County Transportation Authority (BCTA) is the operator of mass transportation in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Seven routes are provided, all of which serve the southern and central portions of the county, which are incorporated into sub ...

Route 1 *

Butler Transit Authority Butler Transit Authority, also known as theBus or the BTA, is a public transportation service in Butler, Pennsylvania. The service provides local transit in central Butler County and commuter routes from Butler to Pittsburgh. The BTA operates a fle ...

* Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation Commuter *

New Castle Area Transit Authority New Castle Area Transit Authority is a public transportation service located in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. It provides inter-city bus and paratransit service to select communities within the county. Because the region is located within the metr ...

Route 71 *

Washington City Transit ''Freedom Transit (formerly 'Washington City Transit')'' is the designation for the public transit agency that provides bus services in the urbanized portion of central and northern Washington County, Pennsylvania. Description Local bus routes op ...

Washington-Pittsburgh *

Westmoreland County Transit Authority The Westmoreland County Transit Authority (WCTA) is the operator of mass transportation in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Using 35 buses, a total of 18 routes are operated, the majority of which serve the urbanized corridor that makes up the ...

All Pittsburgh Routes except Route 4

Intercity bus connections

Grant Street Transportation Center

Across the street is the Grant Street Transportation Center. It serves as an intercity bus station for: * Greyhound *

Fullington Trailways The Trailways Transportation System is an American network of approximately 70 independent bus companies that have entered into a brand licensing agreement. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Trailwa ...

Mountain Line Transit Authority Mountain Line Transit Authority is the main provider of public transportation located in Morgantown, West Virginia and the surrounding area. It is also the provider of bus service on the campus of West Virginia University. Inter-city bus service ...

Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority is a public transportation service located in Washington County, Westmoreland County, and a small portion of Fayette County in Pennsylvania. It provides inter-city bus and paratransit service to select communitie ...

Commuter A

Gallery

Image:Pittsburgh Union Station Rotunda 1876px.jpg, The rotunda File:Pittsburgh Union Station clock.jpg, Exterior clock File:Union Station - Pittsburgh.jpg, Union Station, ca. 1910 File:Pittsburgh Penn Station.jpg, East Busway station near the railroad building. File:Pittsburgh LRT Penn Station 2.jpg, T station, with no regular service since 1993

References

External links

Images of Union Station, PittsburghThe Pennsylvanian
* * *
Magazine article from ''Railway Age'' (1901) with floor plan
{{Authority control Beaux-Arts architecture in Pennsylvania Railway stations in Pittsburgh History of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Railway stations in the United States opened in 1903 Transit centers in the United States Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks Skyscraper office buildings in Pittsburgh Residential buildings in Pittsburgh Residential condominiums in the United States Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Clock towers in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh 1903 establishments in Pennsylvania Former Pennsylvania Railroad stations Port Authority of Allegheny County stations Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway