På alla tänkbara sätt är Chicago alltså fortfarande navet för järnvägstrafiken i USA. I staden möts alla stora järnvägssystem plus ett större antal regionala järnvägar än någon annan stans. Utom på ett sätt. I många städer, så även i USA, finns det stora magnfika järnvägsstationer i stadens centrum. Så är det inte i Chicago.
I New York finns den otroligt pampiga Grand Central Station och den stora, mer moderna Penn Station under Madison Square Garden. Bägge stationerna är väl synliga och förnimbara i stadsrummet. I Chicago ligger det tydligen en järnvägsstation under Millenium Park, Millennium Station, som betjänar Metras elektrifierade pendeltågsnät söderut. Dessa eljärnvägslinjer tillhörde tidigare Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad och Illinois Central Railroad. Jag har varit i Millennium Park flera gånger, men aldrig lagt märke till järnvägsstationen. Millennium Station hette innan Millennium Park kom till, Randolph Street Station. Stationen trafikeras av South Shore Line (NICTD) och som redan nämnts, Metra Electric.
Den enda kvarvarande gamla stationen är Union Station, strax väster om the Loop och på västra sidan av Chicagoflodens södra gren. Union station är den enda station som har intercitytåg och interkontinentala fjärrtåg. Denna trafik bedrivs av Amtrak. När det gäller pendeltågstrafiken som sköts av Metra så betjänas stationen av Metra Milwaukee District West, Milwaukee District North, North Central Service, BNSF Railway (trafiken sköts av BNSF men tågen ägs av Metra), Heritage Corridor och SouthWest Service.
Den första föregångaren till Union Station byggdes 1858 av Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad och 1874 byggdes Union Station av 4 olika bolag tillsammans, Pennsylvania Company (ett dotterbolag till Pennsylvania Railroad), Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Chicago and Alton Railroad, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. Järnvägar som har trafikerat Union Station innefattar bl.a.:
- Chicago and Alton Railroad – only a tenant, later part of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad
- Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Burlington Route)
- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) – The station housed its corporate offices
- Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway (PRR)
- Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Panhandle) (moved to use the PFW&C approach after April 23, 1917)
- New York Central Railroad and Michigan Central Railroad (moved from LaSalle Street Station October 27, 1968)
- Amtrak (began May 1, 1971, moved from Dearborn Station May 2, 1971 and Central Station March 6, 1972 (Floridian moved January 23, 1972); Amtrak’s Calumet and Indiana Connection commuter trains also ran into Union Station
Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW) byggde år 1911 sin Chicago & North Western Terminal som erättning för Wells Street Station på andra sidan norra grenen av Chicagofloden. Förutom CNW trafikerades stationen av ett antal andra bolag:
In addition, on November 9, 1969, the day after Grand Central Station closed, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Pere Marquette Railway, Grand Central’s two remaining users, moved their remaining intercity services into the C&NW’s terminal. Those trains, which used the C&NW’s branch to the St. Charles Air Line west of Western Avenue, last ran on April 30, 1971, the day before Amtrak took over most intercity passenger trains in the U.S. Amtrak services over the lines of those two railroads have run into Union Station.
1984 revs den gamla byggnaden och en ny station byggdes på samma plats. Den ombyggda stationen fick namnet Ogilvie Transportation Center och trafikeras av Metras Union Pacific (UP)-linjer Union Pacific/North, Union Pacific/Northwest och Union Pacific/West. Trafiken på dessa linjer sköts av UP men tågen ägs av Metra.
Den fjärde järnvägstationen som fortfarade är i drift är La Salle Street Station. Den första stationen på platsen byggdes 1852:
The first station on the site opened on May 22, 1852 with the completion of the Northern Indiana and Chicago Railroad. On October 1, 1852, the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad began using the station. The two railroads later became the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (New York Central Railroad) and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. North of a junction at Englewood Station, both companies’ lines ran parallel to the terminal.
In December 1866 a new station opened. The Great Chicago Fire of October 1871 destroyed the station, which was rebuilt. The rebuilt station opened July 1, 1903 and stood until 1981.
1978 slutade fjärrtåg och intercitytåg att gå till La Salle Street station och idag är stationen endast trafikerad av pendeltåg på Metra’s Rock Island District-linje. Det finns planer på ytterligare en pendeltågslinje från La Salle Street, SouthEast Service. 1981 byggdes en ny stationsbyggnad. Under sin existens har stationen trafikerats av Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (intill 1978), New York Central Railroad (till oktober 1968), New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate) och Michigan Central Railroad (del av New York Central) (1957 – 1968).
Nedlagda och rivna stationer i Chicago innefattar Grand Central Station som användes mellan 1890 och 1969:
Grand Central Station was designed by architect Solon Spencer Beman for the Wisconsin Central Railroad, and was completed by the Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad.
Grand Central Station was eventually purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which used the station as the Chicago terminus for its passenger rail service, including its glamorous Capitol Limited to Washington, D.C. Major tenant railroads included the Soo Line Railroad, successor to the Wisconsin Central, the Chicago Great Western Railway, and the Pere Marquette Railway.
Vidare Dearborn Station, byggd 1885 och ägd av Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad. Detta bolag ägdes i sin tur av de järnvägsbolag som drev trafik på linjen och till stationen:
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway — the Chief, Super Chief, El Capitan, and Grand Canyon Limited (to name but a few) to Los Angeles; the Texas Chief to Dallas; the Antelope to Oklahoma City; the Kansas Cityan (and its eastbound counterpart, the Chicagoan) to Kansas City and The San Francisco Chief to San Francisco California. All lines operating into Dearborn Station, except for the Santa Fe, travelled over the C&WI’s tracks.
- Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (moved to Grand Central Station February 28, 1925).
- Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad — Zipper and Silent Knight to St. Louis; Dixie Flyer to Evansville.
- Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway (Monon) — Hoosier and Tippecanoe to Indianapolis.
- Erie Railroad (Erie Lackawanna Railway from 1960) — Erie Limited and Atlantic Express to New York City.
- Grand Trunk Western Railroad — Maple Leaf, Inter-city Limited and International Limited to Toronto and Montreal. Mohawk to Detroit.
- Wabash Railroad (Norfolk and Western Railway from 1964) — Blue Bird and Banner Blue to St. Louis.
Stationen stängdes 1971 men revs först på 1980-talet.
Slutligen så fanns Central Station som öppnades 1893 och ägdes av Illinois Central Railroad. Stationen användes också av ett flertal andra bolag:
It was also used by the Illinois Central’s Chicago, Madison and Northern Railroad, merged into the IC in 1902, which reached the station via the St. Charles Air Line Railroad, meeting the IC main line just south of the station.
Also sharing the station was the Michigan Central Railroad, part of the New York Central Railroad system, which had shared the IC’s terminal from its opening in 1852. The Michigan Central connected with the Illinois Central at Kensington. The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (Big Four), also a New York Central line, joined the IC at Kankakee and also used Central Station. Finally, using the station from the beginning was the Chicago and West Michigan Railway, consolidated into the Pere Marquette Railroad in 1900. At the time it used the Michigan Central west from New Buffalo, Michigan.
On the other hand, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which had used the Illinois Central Depot, moved into Grand Central Station rather than relocate to the new Central Station further from downtown.
The Wisconsin Central Railway (part of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway (Soo Line) after 1909) switched from Grand Central Station to Central in 1899 due to disagreements with the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad, which owned Grand Central. To get to Central it used a portion of the recently-opened Chicago, Hammond and Western Railroad (later the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad) from Franklin Park to Broadview, and the Illinois Central’s Chicago, Madison and Northern Railroad from Broadview to the terminal. On December 15, 1903, the Pere Marquette Railroad’s line to Porter, Indiana opened, and its trains were rerouted from Central to Grand Central.
The Soo Line switched back to Grand Central Station in 1912. On March 1, 1925 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway began using Central, switching from Dearborn Station. Its new alignment used the allied New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) from Hammond, Indiana north to Grand Crossing, Illinois, where it joined the Illinois Central to its terminal. In 1965 the Soo Line once again switched stations, moving back into Central for its final years of passenger service.
Central Station stängdes 1972 och revs 1974.
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Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Illinois, Illinois Central, Michigan Central, Grand Central, Dearborn Station, UnionStation, Randolph Street Station, Millennium Park, Millennium Station, La Salle Station, Soo Line, Metra, South Shore, NICTD, Ogilvie Transportation Center, Wells Street Station, Amtrak, Union Pacific, BNSF, Järnväg, Tågtrafik, Järnvägsstationer, Chicago, USA, Kollektivtrafik, Samhälle
Tags: Illinois, Illinois Central, Michigan Central, Grand Central, Dearborn Station, UnionStation, Randolph Street Station, Millennium Park, Millennium Station, La Salle Station, Soo Line, Metra, South Shore, NICTD, Ogilvie Transportation Center, Wells Street Station, Amtrak, Union Pacific, BNSF, Järnväg, Tågtrafik, Järnvägsstationer
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