Dallas Union Station, officially Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station (or simply EBJ Union Station), also known as Dallas Union Terminal, is a large intermodal railroad station in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. It is the third busiest Amtrak station in Texas, behind Fort Worth Central Station and San Antonio station. It serves

DART light rail The DART light rail system serves the metropolitan area of Dallas, Texas. It is owned and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). The system opened June 14, 1996 and serves 65 stations and four lines, covering : the , the , the , and th ...

Blue and Red lines,

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

and

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 intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

inter-city rail Inter-city rail services are Express train, express trains that run services that connect cities over longer distances than Commuter rail, commuter or Regional rail, regional trains. They include rail services that are neither short-distance co ...

. It is located on

Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson ...

, between Wood and Young Streets, in the Reunion district of

Downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally ...

. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Services

The station is served by Amtrak's ''

Texas Eagle The ''Texas Eagle'' is a long-distance passenger train operated daily by Amtrak on a route between Chicago, Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas, with major stops in St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin. Three days per week, t ...

'' with

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

as the eastern terminus and either

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

as the western terminus and later by proposed Crescent (train). The light rail station serves as a stop on the and lines as well as the . Union Station is the northern terminus of the

Dallas Streetcar The Dallas Streetcar is a modern streetcar line in Dallas, Texas. It is owned by the city of Dallas and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which also operates Dallas's DART light rail system. Construction on the line began in May 2013,'' T ...

and provides access to the

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets. Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...

bus terminal, the George Allen Courts Building,

Dealey Plaza Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was also the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. The Dealey Plaza Historic ...

, the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion and

Reunion Tower Reunion Tower is a observation tower in Dallas, and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. The tower is located at 300 Reunion Boulevard in the Reunion district of downtown Dallas, which is named after the mid-nineteenth century commune ...

. The first floor is occupied by an Amtrak ticketing window, a waiting room, and privately rented offices. The second floor contains the restored Grand Hall and several meeting rooms named after railroads that previously serviced Dallas. The second floor and a mezzanine are operated by

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian chef and restaurateur. Early life Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname of his stepfather, Jos ...

Catering.

History

The Union Terminal Company constructed the Dallas Union Terminal, as Union Station was originally called, in 1916 to consolidate five rail stations scattered around Dallas into one, making Dallas a major transportation center in the Southern United States. At the peak of its usage, as many as 80 trains stopped each day at the station. It was designed by Jarvis Hunt, who designed other large train stations. Railroads served by the station included

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

('Santa Fe'),

St. Louis Southwestern Railway The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee ...

('Cotton Belt'), Fort Worth & Denver Railway,

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

('Rock Island'),

Burlington-Rock Island Railroad The Burlington-Rock Island Railroad was a joint railroad in Texas, United States. It came into existence on July 7, 1930, through the reorganization of its predecessor, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway Company (T&BV), nicknamed the "Boll W ...

, St. Louis and San Francisco Railway ('Frisco'),

Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Southern Branch, it came to serve an exten ...

('Katy'),

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

and Texas & Pacific Railway. In 1954, the building served as a temporary library while the

Dallas Public Library The Dallas Public Library (DPL) is the public library system that serves the city of Dallas, Texas, United States. With more than 4 million items and 30 locations, the Dallas Public Library is the largest public library system in North Texas. A ...

system built a new central library to replace the original Carnegie Library. Originally, the 2nd level waiting room was connected to train platforms via an overhead walkway, but this design was never popular with travelers as they needed to climb a large number of stairs.

Escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...

s were added, but the Grand Hall was finally abandoned in favor of renovated ticketing and a waiting room on the ground floor (still in use today). Also, an underground corridor replaced the overhead walkway, with ramps at each platform. Despite Dallas' status as the second most populous city of the state at the time, the Dallas Union Station was eclipsed in some regard by Fort Worth Union Station. For example, the Rock Island Railroad's '' Twin Star Rocket'' from Minneapolis terminated at Fort Worth, not at Dallas. The Santa Fe Railroad's ''

Texas Chief The ''Texas Chief'' was a passenger train operated by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway between Chicago, Illinois and Galveston, Texas. It was the first Santa Fe "Chief" outside the Chicago–Los Angeles routes. The Santa Fe conveyed the ' ...

'' from Chicago also took its route through Fort Worth, en route to Houston. The last passenger train to serve Union Station before the inauguration of

, the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...

's ''

,'' left on May 31, 1969. When it began in the spring of 1971, Amtrak initially consolidated most of its Metroplex service at

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, but planned to introduce service to Dallas once improvements were made at Union Terminal, which it considered outdated. With those improvements, Amtrak service began on March 14, 1974, with the '' Inter-American'' between St. Louis and Laredo; the train evolved into today's ''

.'' From 1975 to 1981, the station was also served by the '' Lone Star,'' a descendant of an old Santa Fe mainstay, the ''

.'' DART's light-rail service began at the station on June 14, 1996. The station's upper-level waiting room was repurposed into meeting and convention space for the Hyatt Regency Dallas, which is connected via an underground walkway. In October 2016, the Dallas City Council renamed the station to Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station in honor of U.S. Representative

Eddie Bernice Johnson Eddie Bernice Johnson (December 3, 1934 – December 31, 2023) was an American politician who represented Texas's in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2023. Johnson was a member of the Democratic Party. Johnson was electe ...

. In April 2019, DART approved the new name and held a dedication ceremony. It is mostly referred to as EBJ Union Station.

Murals

In 1934, as part of the federally sponsored Public Works of Art Project,

Jerry Bywaters Williamson Gerald Bywaters (1906–1989), known as Jerry Bywaters, was an American artist, university professor, museum director, art critic and a historian of the Texas region. Based in Dallas, Bywaters worked to elevate the quality of Texas ar ...

and Alexander Hogue were granted the first commission in Texas to create a series of 10 murals depicting events in Dallas history. They had painted them on the walls of the second-floor lobby at the old

Dallas City Hall Dallas City Hall is the seat of municipal government of the city of Dallas, Texas, United States. It is located at 1500 Marilla Street in the Government District, Dallas, Government District of downtown Dallas. The current building, the city's ...

Building, located on Harwood Street between Main and Commerce Streets. In 1954, the original murals were destroyed when City Hall relocated. When the station was renovated to accommodate light rail usage, the murals were partially recreated by Phillip Lamb along the train platforms at Union Station.

References

External links

Union Station – Dallas Area Rapid TransitUnion Station – Trinity Railway Express

Union Station – Wolfgang Puck event venue
, from Amtrak's ''Texas Eagle'' website

{{National Register of Historic Places in Texas

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Economy of Dallas Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail stations in Dallas Trinity Railway Express stations Union stations in the United States Railway stations in the United States opened in 1916 Transit centers in the United States Beaux-Arts architecture in Texas

Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Railway stations in Dallas National Register of Historic Places in Dallas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks Dallas Landmarks Former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad stations Railway stations in Dallas County, Texas Blue Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) Red Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)

Services

History

Murals

See also

References

External links