Fort Towson

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. It is the third busiest Amtrak station in Texas, behind Fort Worth Central Station and San Antonio station.[4] It serves DART Light Rail Blue and Red lines, Trinity Railway Express commuter rail and Amtrak intercity rail. It is located on Houston Street, between Wood and Young Streets, in the Reunion district of Downtown Dallas. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Services

Texas Eagle #421 in Dallas Union Station led by Amtrak P42DC #69
Looking across tracks and platforms

The station is served by Amtrak's Texas Eagle with Chicago as the eastern terminus and either San Antonio or Los Angeles as the western terminus. The light rail station serves as a stop on the Red and Blue lines as well as the TRE. Union Station is the northern terminus of the Dallas Streetcar and provides access to the Greyhound bus terminal, the George Allen Courts Building, Dealey Plaza, the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion and Reunion Tower.[5]

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 Catering.[6]

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.[7] It was designed by Jarvis Hunt, who designed other large train stations. Railroads served by the station included Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ('Santa Fe'), St. Louis Southwestern Railway ('Cotton Belt'), Fort Worth & Denver Railway, Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad ('Rock Island'), Burlington-Rock Island Railroad, St. Louis and San Francisco Railway ('Frisco'), Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad ('Katy'), Southern Pacific Railroad and Texas & Pacific Railway.[8]

In 1954, the building served as a temporary library while the Dallas Public Library system built a new central library to replace the original Carnegie Library.[9]

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. Escalators 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 from Chicago also took its route through Fort Worth, en route to Houston.[10][11]

The last passenger train to serve Union Station before the inauguration of Amtrak, the Missouri Pacific Railroad's Texas Eagle, left on May 31, 1969.[12] When it began in the spring of 1971, Amtrak initially consolidated most of its Metroplex service at Fort Worth, 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 Texas Eagle. From 1975 to 1981, the station was also served by the Lone Star, a descendant of an old Santa Fe mainstay, the Texas Chief.

DART's light-rail service began at the station on June 14, 1996.[6] 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.[13] In April 2019, DART approved the new name and held a dedication ceremony.[14] It is mostly referred to as EBJ Union Station.[15]

Murals

In 1934, as part of the federally sponsored Public Works of Art Project, Jerry Bywaters 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 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.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: State of Texas" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  3. ^ Lee E. Holt (January 17, 1977). "Ordinance No. 15382" (PDF). City of Dallas. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  4. ^ Amtrak, State of Texas factsheet, Fiscal Year 2019, page 1 https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/statefactsheets/TEXAS19.pdf
  5. ^ Cantu, Blanca (2008-08-13). "DART celebrates 25 years with free doughnuts at Union Station". The Dallas Morning News.
  6. ^ a b "Union Station Website". Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  7. ^ a b "Union Station". DART.org. Retrieved 2006-05-01.
  8. ^ 'Official Guide of the Railways,' National Railway Publication Company, August 1936, Index of Stations
  9. ^ "100 Years of History". Dallas Library. Retrieved 2006-05-01.
  10. ^ "Rock Island Lines, Table 4". Official Guide of the Railways. 97 (7). National Railway Publication Company. December 1964.
  11. ^ "Santa Fe Lines, Tables 41, 43". Official Guide of the Railways. 97 (7). National Railway Publication Company. December 1964.
  12. ^ Rosenbaum, Joel. "Arising again like the phoenix". Cowcatcher Magazine. Vol. 14, no. July/August 2017. Ballpark Impressions, LLC. p. 37.
  13. ^ Hallman, Tristan (11 October 2016). "Dallas' Union Station to be renamed for Democratic U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  14. ^ Sarder, Sarah (10 April 2019). "DART renames downtown Union Station after Dallas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  15. ^ "EBJ Union Station". Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.

External links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Union_Station