# Why Were Union Stations Built?



## sttom (Apr 1, 2019)

Not sure if this question belongs here, but here we go! I have always wondered what were the factors that led railways to build Union passenger stations in the US. Was it local politics? The railways wanting to simplify operations? The railways wanting to be cheap? Or some mix of them and more? I have never really gotten an answer from digging on the internet...


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## Just-Thinking-51 (Apr 1, 2019)

Massive Building with a high number of employees. A huge space for the building, platform, tracks in and out, support yards, engine maintenance, and railway express buildings.

Cost and physical space would be the reason in my opinion.


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## caravanman (Apr 2, 2019)

Maybe there was a time of cooperation or amalgamation in the past between some former passenger train competitors?


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## Thirdrail7 (Apr 2, 2019)

I remember this discussion. The answers provided by RR60 and Jim G in the Union Stations???
thread are indeed accurate.


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## cirdan (Apr 2, 2019)

Maybe also some similarity to belt railroads (such as that of New Orleans). With an independent authority owning and managing the infrastructure, no railroad can be discriminated against for access rights


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## railiner (Apr 2, 2019)

All above contain some reasons why. A lot depended on the particular geography of a city. Sometimes each railroad would have its own station, and sometimes two or more would share a union station, if they had a junction at a convenient location. In some cases, railroads would utilized brief stretches of trackage rights in order to gain access to such union stations. A railroad with only marginal service in a particular city, would benefit by using a grand station hosted by another railroad that had a lot of service there.


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## Dakota 400 (Apr 2, 2019)

Certainly have no definitive answer to the OP's question, but from my experience with the Union Stations in Columbus, Ohio and in Cincinnati, Ohio, my thought is this.

Both Stations served multiple railroads: Pennsylvania, New York Central, Norfolk and Western, Chesapeake and Ohio, maybe Baltimore and Ohio. Cincinnati was also served by Southern Railroad if my memory is correct. Both stations were large; Cincinnati's still is, although I don't know how large the passenger concourse is for the Cardinal. Having a Union Station serving several railroads made sense for the "bean counters" of that time.


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## sttom (Apr 2, 2019)

The primary reason why I asked was that it would have made some sense for Oakland to have a Union Station seeing as how it had the Southern Pacific, Western Pacific (Sacramento Northern as well), and the Santa Fe. All of their trains that terminated in Oakland stopped near each other.


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## railiner (Apr 3, 2019)

I believe that in Oakland's case, the roads would have eventually all moved into a single station by some means, probably SP's at 16th and Wood, had they continued private operation of passenger service. Los Angeles consolidated into Union Station at a much earlier time....


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## chakk (Apr 3, 2019)

railiner said:


> I believe that in Oakland's case, the roads would have eventually all moved into a single station by some means, probably SP's at 16th and Wood, had they continued private operation of passenger service. Los Angeles consolidated into Union Station at a much earlier time....



Didn’t happen, and probably won’t have. SP used the Oakland 16th St Station as their endpoint starting in 1958 when they discontinued their ferry service and closed the Oakland Pier station at water’s edge.

WP moved from their own WP Mole at water’s edge into the Oakland Pier station around 1933, and continued to share with the SP until 1958. They chose not to use the SP 16th st station for their remaining passenger trains, as it would require an awkward reverse move from their servicing facilities further south in West Oakland in order to spot eastbound trains in the 16th street station. From their end stations in the post-1958 era — first on Middle Harbor Road and later on 3rd & Washington Streets, it was a straight shot to/from the turning loop near the train servicing facilities in West Oakland. 

The ATSF never used a station other than Richmond for the terminal of their passenger trains in the SF Bay Area, delivering passengers to San Francisco first via ferry and later via bus connections over the Bay Bridge.


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## sttom (Apr 3, 2019)

chakk said:


> The ATSF never used a station other than Richmond for the terminal of their passenger trains in the SF Bay Area, delivering passengers to San Francisco first via ferry and later via bus connections over the Bay Bridge.



The Santa Fe had a station at 40th and San Pablo. Technically in Emeryville, but its right on the city line. According to historical records, the station was demolished in the 60s. 



railiner said:


> I believe that in Oakland's case, the roads would have eventually all moved into a single station by some means, probably SP's at 16th and Wood, had they continued private operation of passenger service. Los Angeles consolidated into Union Station at a much earlier time....



Relating to the above post, I would have suspected that somewhere closer to where the Emeryville station is today would have been the potential spot for a hypothetical "Oakland" Union Station. Better access to the bridge after it was built, assuming the hypothetical station would have been built prior to World War 2. I know Emeryville isn't Oakland, but whats a few miles and a zip code between railways?


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