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Los Angeles Union Station, Better Known as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT)

Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS), better known as its original name, Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT), is perhaps the best-recognized railroad station of the western U.S. When built LAUPT (as it was then known) hosted some of the West’s most prominent passenger trains. As rail travel began to fall from grace beginning in the 1950s the station’s importance dwindled but its fate and life have been far better than several others of its kind across the country as it has been in continual use throughout its life and has survived entirely intact, ready to handle the resurgence of passenger rail in the 21st century.

Los Angeles Union Station is the last of our great railroad stations designed in California’s traditional mission-style architecture and completed at a cost of $11 million in 1939, having been financed by the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific railroads.

While the station was built and completed towards the end of the railroad industry’s heyday of passenger rail travel it was still very busy and saw over 7,000 folks daily through the facility in the 1940s. The station also saw its three builders’ most prominent passenger trains with names like the Super Chief (Santa Fe), Daylight (Southern Pacific), and City of Los Angeles (one of the Union Pacific’s

famous fleet of City trains).

One reason that the Santa Fe became such a famous railroad was because of its flagship passenger train, the Super Chief (and, the railroad also claimed the most streamliners in operation at one time). The train quickly eclipsed its rivals (including its own cousin, the Chief) as the premier train to the Southwest and became so popular that it was the transportation choice of many Hollywood celebrities from the late 1930s through the 1960s.

The Daylight, SP’s original of its succeeding fleet of trains with the Daylight name, became perhaps the most successful and recognized of all time even rivaling the Santa Fe’s legendary Super Chief.

The popularity of the Daylight was incredibly high, even through the early 1960s although by the latter half of that decade the SP began greatly reducing services and amenities on the fleet as patronage declined. Today, a version of this successful fleet of trains remains under Amtrak as the likewise very popular Coast Starlight.

The City of Los Angeles was just one train in the Union Pacific’s premier fleet of passenger trains. The railroad hosted an entire array of plush City trains and today they can still be witnessed, in a manner of speaking, as the UP’s official business train is not only decorated in a the Cities’ classic livery but also includes the original equipment from them, right down to the two E9As and E9Bs that power it!

As rail travel slowly began to die away beginning in the 1950s and folks found automobiles to be much more convenient and airlines much faster in traveling the famous trains mostly stopped calling by to LAUPT by 1970 and were gone altogether by 1971 when Amtrak took over operations of the country’s intercity passenger trains.

Thankfully for both architecture’s sake and that of our transportation infrastructure altogether, LAUPT (renamed Los Angeles Union Station, LAUS for short, by its current owner Catellus Development) found new life beginning in the 1990s as it had limped along since Amtrak’s creation serving a few of the carrier’s long-distance trains.

And, its future continues to look bright. “The most visible change is the Gateway Center, a bus terminal and park & ride facility which provides better connections between buses and trains. The Gateway, which opened in October 1995, also includes shops, restaurants and offices, all located on the Union Station property. In addition, by 2002, the Metro Blue Line to Pasadena will link Union Station with Chinatown, Highland Park and Pasadena and improved Metrolink service will also be introduced. In the 21st century, Union Station will also be a major destination in the proposed high-speed rail system for California.” (The previous was courtesy of Los Angeles Rail Transit.)

Today fully restored and vibrant as ever, the station serves Metro Rail, MetroLink, and continues to serve Amtrak with its San Diegans and Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, and Texas Eagle all calling there.

For more reading about railroad stations you might want to consider a copy of Railroad Stations from author Brian Solomon. While the book is just a very general overview of some of the great stations that once stood in this country it is quite good with lots of historical photographs, including that of Grand Central Terminal and the late Pennsylvania Station (it also gives a history of the thousands of small depots that existed in most communities). All in all if you’re interested in stations and depots you’re sure to enjoy Mr. Solomon’s book on the subject. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing this book please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".

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