(rshsdepot) Union Station - Los Angeles, CA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From Los Angeles Downtown News.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Union Station Dreams
 
Tips to Help the Historic Rail Center Reach Its Potential
 
by Dennis Lytton
 
Finished in 1939, Union Station is the last great train station built in  
America. It was constructed in a glorious Spanish Mission Revival and Art Deco  
style. During the nadir of rail travel it languished. But today it is busier  
than ever before, serving as the hub for Metrolink, Amtrak and Metro  Rail.

It's hard for many to grasp that a train station in Los  Angeles is so busy. 
So let's put it into more comprehensible terms: How many  passengers are 
traveling through Union Station versus Southern California's  airports?
 
About 73,500 passengers get on and off trains at Union Station each  weekday. 
That's nearly five-and-a-half times as many passengers as Bob Hope  (Burbank) 
Airport handles (according to FAA and transit agency statistics). More  than 
four times as many as Ontario, over nine times more than Long Beach and  more 
than one-and-a-half times as many as San Diego International. Union Station  
sees more passengers every day than all those combined plus John Wayne Airport. 
 Only LAX and the three busiest airports in America see more passengers on an 
 average weekday than our Union Station. We have the busiest train station  
outside of the Northeast Corridor and Chicago.
 
Given how important Union Station is, there's a lot that we should do to  
improve it.
 
 
Passenger Information Systems

Electronic signs at Union Station tell passengers when certain train  lines 
are supposed to arrive and depart. However, that's not very useful  information 
in and of itself. The signs say nothing about when trains for  certain 
stations are leaving or even what those stations are. If you don't know,  for 
instance, that Claremont is on the San Bernardino Line or that Fullerton is  served 
by Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner and two separate Metrolink lines (and that  
their tickets are partly interchangeable) you can't use the system effectively.  
Only frequent riders know about vital details like this.

New York train stations provide this information - the time that a  train is 
leaving for every station on their system (listed alphabetically),  regardless 
of what line the train is on. Every train platform entrance has every  
station on the line listed.
 
The Metro Red and Gold lines have poor passenger information systems as  
well. They don't detail when the next train is coming and where it is going.  
Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail system does this.
 
Metro Rail, Metrolink and Amtrak could bring such improved passenger  
information systems to Union Station. Imagine a big board listing every station  
alphabetically along with the next train's time and track number detailed. Each  
platform entrance would display the stations served by those trains.
 
 
Mixed-Use Development
 
Amenities such as food, shopping and housing make train stations much more  
pleasant to travel through. The great train stations of the East Coast, such as 
 New York's Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station and Washington, D.C.'s 
Union  Station, are fine examples of this. They are brimming with restaurants, 
shopping  and other services often tucked into formerly underutilized spaces 
that enhance  the architectural integrity of the building. The stations are 
destinations and  economic engines in and of themselves. Unlike airports, train 
stations fit  within the urban fabric.
 
Union Station is greatly lacking this vital investment. Its vast old  
ticketing room and railroad restaurant (among the largest restaurant spaces in  Los 
Angeles) sit empty unless they're being used for filming or rented out for  
special events. Only one small restaurant and bar, a bagel shop and a couple  
kiosks fill the vast spaces of the Downtown Los Angeles station.
 
Mixed-use development and private investment provide a real chance to make  
Union Station shine. A forward-thinking developer could move Metrolink, Amtrak, 
 rental car and MTA customer service and ticket sales back to the old 
ticketing  room and out from the small corners where they are now. Build shopping on 
a  split-level structure above the ticketing and lobby areas as was done at  
Washington's Union Station. Add restaurants, from quick eateries to fine 
dining,  along the passenger tunnel and East Portal. Build an enclosed 
business-class  lounge. Imagine Union Station anchoring the east side of Downtown the way 
L.A.  Live will the south and the Grand Avenue project will anchor the north.
 
What's lacking isn't potential business - every Southern California airport  
except LAX is less busy than Union Station and they have many of the above  
amenities. What's needed is vision from the current owner and the passenger  
railroads that use Union Station.
 
From the mid-1980s until last year, Union Station was owned by the Catellus  
Development Corp., a railroad merger spin-off. They shepherded the gradual  
revival of the station, bringing office towers to the surrounding vacant land,  
culminating in a new housing project on the station's former surface level  
parking lot.
 
The station's new owner, ProLogis, a firm specializing in distribution  
warehouses, does not seem to have a focused vision for the station. Their  
spokesperson told Los Angeles Downtown News last year that they plan to shed  
non-industrial properties and that, "Distribution warehouses are what we will  
continue to focus on."
 
Union Station is our gem. It will take some savvy vision from private  
investors, local stakeholders and the railroads that use it to bring Union  Station 
up to par with the other great train stations of America.
 
Dennis Lytton writes about transportation issues, is on the board of  
directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers and is the  
Transportation Chair of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council. Contact  him at 
_lytton_@_verizon.net_ (mailto:lytton@verizon.net) .

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1405
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org