Resolution regarding Chicago Union Station passenger waiting facilities

RESOLUTION REGARDING CHICAGO UNION STATION PASSENGER WAITING FACILITIES

WHEREAS, ridership on Amtrak is increasing rapidly throughout the United States and at Chicago’s Union Station and,

WHEREAS, Chicago’s Union Station is the hub of Amtrak’s nationwide network and currently serves over three million Amtrak passengers and over 30 million Metra passengers annually and,

WHEREAS, the facility was redesigned in 1989 in a way that forces all passengers into waiting rooms that do not have adequate capacity and leaves the Great Hall largely empty and,

WHEREAS, the passenger waiting facilities are overcrowded, creating an uncomfortable experience for passengers and,

WHEREAS, the Great Hall, designed by a team that included Daniel Burnham, is an architectural gem with marble floors and walls, long Corinthian columns and a 112 foot tall vaulted skylight, and

WHEREAS, the Great Hall is best used as a passenger waiting facility as originally designed, and

WHEREAS, the current owner of Chicago’s Union Station, Chicago Union Station Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Railroad Passenger Company (Amtrak), is engaged in the beginning stages of a redevelopment of the station, and

WHEREAS, there remains a risk that the Great Hall might be converted to retail space in a manner that renders it unusable for train passengers, and

WHEREAS, current redevelopment plans call for construction of a new passenger waiting facility at substantial cost for which no funding exists, and

WHEREAS, an ideal passenger waiting facility already exists in the Great Hall,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the National Association of Railroad Passengers calls on Amtrak to retain the Great Hall as a passenger waiting and ticketing area so Chicago Union Station will serve as an attractive, convenient hub for a growing and dynamic nationwide passenger train service network.

—Approved May 3, 2007, by the Board of Directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, meeting in Washington, DC.