Union Station (or Pennsylvania Station, commonly called Penn Station) is a historic

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...

in Downtown Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, 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 r ...

, 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 Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

, this facility connected the Pennsylvania Railroad 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 used

, the Wabash Railroad used Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 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, 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

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 ...

s beneath wide, low vaulted spaces that owed little to any historicist style. Above, the rotunda sheltered passengers in a spectacular

waiting room A waiting room or waiting hall is a building, or more commonly a part of a building or a room, where people sit or stand until the event or appointment for which they are waiting begins. There are two types of waiting room. One has individuals ...

. 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 The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Service began at the station on October 12, 1901. On January 3, 1954, the Pennsylvania Railroad 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 The ''Broadway Limited'' was a passenger train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) between New York City and Chicago. It operated from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central ...

'' (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 renam ...

'' (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'' (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 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 The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

's '' Pennsylvanian'' route and is along the '' Capitol Limited'' route. Until 2005, Pittsburgh was also serviced by the '' Three Rivers'' (a replacement service for the legendary ''

''), an extended version of the ''Pennsylvanian'' that terminated in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. 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 is PGH.

Architecture

In September 1978, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' art critic Brendan Gill proclaimed that Pittsburgh's Penn Station is "one of the great pieces of

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpo ...

in America... ne of thesymbols of the nation."

Bus rapid transit

Pittsburgh Regional Transit Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT, formerly Port Authority of Allegheny County) is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in the United States. The state-funded agency is based in Pittsburgh and is overseen ...

operates a bus rapid transit station served by the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway. 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 Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation, known by the moniker of FACT, is a public transportation service located in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It provides inter-city bus and paratransit service to select communities within the county. Because t ...

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 met ...

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 ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

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