When I first visited Chicago Union Station as a kid in 1982, I thought it was a rail wonderland. You still had RTA trains being pulled by ex-Burlington Northern and Milwaukee Road E units. Each commuter line had its own ticket window near the Great Hall. The little shopping concourse seemed modern. Gary Coleman had shown you could actually live in Union Station in that made-for-TV movie he did.
However, in my visits this year, I'm a bit disappointed with CUS. The Great Hall is still a magnificent piece of architecture, if you can avoid the bums sleeping on the benches. The food court is not exactly all that modern. Other than a few "Relay" newsstands, there's not much shopping to be done. Whereas I could prowl the platforms in 1982 and 1983, now Amtrak and METRA Police keep you away from them unless you have a ticket--and only then can you go out there just before a train departs. That "modern" concourse now looks like what it is--a product of the 1970s.
Yesterday, I decided to ride the Metra UP North line out of the Ogilvie Transportation Center--the old CNW Station. The OTC is a combination office/retail/train center. It has a large food court, a few mall stores, and around 14 tracks that I could wander yesterday. It also looks a lot modern and its platforms are not as dingy as the old ones at CUS.
Mind you, you go to a train station to board a train, not shop at Avenue. But it is nice for passengers to have some diversion if they have a layover.
Obviously the OTC is much newer but is it time for Chicago Union Station to be remodeled as well?
