Portland Union Station

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Portland Union Station, facing the street
Main hall and 2nd class waiting area of ​​Union Station
The Empire Builder is shunting in the train station
1st class waiting room

The Portland Union Station is the main station of the city of Portland in Oregon , USA .

Geographical location

The station is at the north end of downtown Portland, on the west bank of the Willamette River .

history

There were plans for the construction since 1882. The current, smaller version was presented in 1885 by the architects Van Brunt & Howe , which designed a number of reception buildings for the Union Pacific Railroad . However, construction did not begin until 1890 and was carried out in the historical style that was customary at the time . The station was inaugurated on February 14, 1896. The Portland Union Station thus has one of the oldest continuously used reception buildings of a Union Station in the USA. The station's landmark is its clock tower . Its neon advertising was added in 1948: "Go by Train" is written on two opposite sides and "Union Station" is on the other two.

The last users of the station before Amtrak took over all long-distance passenger transport in 1971 were the Union Pacific Railroad , the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Southern Pacific .

The station building has belonged to the City of Portland (Portland Development Commission) since 1987. It soon began to renovate the facility, which was completed in 1996 to mark its centenary. Today it is classified as a cultural monument of national importance. Most recently, the station forecourt was fundamentally renewed and redesigned in 2004.

Todays use

The station has a house platform and two island platforms with a total of 5 tracks. He is from the Amtrak -Fernzügen Coast Starlight , Empire Builder and Cascades approached. The station is a junction of public transport in Portland. Two lines of the light rail system MAX Light Rail and the local buses of TriMet have stops here. Portland's second light rail system, the Portland Streetcar , is within walking distance of the stop . The Greyhound Lines bus station is in the immediate vicinity .

For 1st class travelers , Amtrak has the only one in the station building in a West Coast train station. The station building also houses around 30 tenants who contribute around 200,000 US dollars a year to the maintenance of the facility. In the financial year 2011 590,076 passengers were counted here.

Web links

Commons : Portland Union Station  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plaque on the building.
  2. ^ Stan Federman: Rail clock buffs want to light up your life . In: The Oregonian . May 1, 1985, p. 1.
  3. ↑ Christopher S. Gorsek: Portland's Pearl District . Arcadia Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7385-9324-1 , p. 127.
  4. ^ National Register of Historic Places - Oregon, Multnomah County .
  5. ^ State of Oregon: Amtrak Fact Sheet , Fiscal Year 2016 (PDF; 459 kB).

Coordinates: 45 ° 31'43.8 "  N , 122 ° 40'35.1"  W.