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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.
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). A bit more history on the station can be found below, courtesy of Amtrak’s Texas Eagle website:
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.)
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.
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