Grand Rapids Union Station
Railway station From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grand Rapids Union Station was a union station in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A Georgian Revival building of two stories, it was built in 1900 on 61 Ionia Avenue SW and was closed in 1958. The building was demolished in 1958 and 1959 to make space for the U.S. Route 131 highway.[1][2]
In five years after Union Station's 1900 construction, 750,000 passengers passed through it. In early decades, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad excursion trains to the station brought more than 2000 visitors from southern Michigan and Indiana on Sundays.[3]
The station served the Pere Marquette Railway (after the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway acquired the PM in 1947 C&O trains passed through), Michigan Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad (which had acquired the GR&I). The Grand Trunk Western Railway and the New York Central Railroad were served at other stations in Grand Rapids.[4] By 1946, Michigan Central operations were entirely folded into New York Central operations.[5]
Noteworthy passenger train service at 1950 included:
- Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (formerly the Pere Marquette Railway):[6][7]
- Pere Marquettes (Detroit [Fort Street Union Depot]–Lansing–Grand Rapids)
- Resort Special (summer only night train, Chicago [Central Station]–Petoskey)
- Grand Rapids–Petoskey; unnamed segments in off-season
- New York Central Railroad:[8]
- unnamed train (Grand Rapids–Jackson–Detroit [Michigan Central Station])
- Pennsylvania Railroad:[9][10]
- Northern Arrow (summer only night train, Cincinnati [Cincinnati Union Terminal]–Fort Wayne–Grand Rapids–Petoskey–Mackinaw City; unnamed segments in off-season)
- unnamed local train on same route as above
- unnamed train timed to connect at Cincinnati to the Louisville & Nashville's Southland, bound for Florida
Waning years
By the 1960s the Chesapeake and Ohio's trains were the only trains serving the successor to the station. The Chicago–Grand Rapids trains were added to the appellation, the Pere Marquettes in 1965. These trains ended in 1971 when C&O passed control of its passenger trains over to Amtrak.
In 1984 passenger trains returned with the introduction of Amtrak's Pere Marquette trains between Chicago and Grand Rapids. In 2004, the Vernon J. Ehlers Station, Grand Rapids' new station, opened.
| Preceding station | Chesapeake and Ohio Railway | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grandville toward Chicago |
Pere Marquette Railway Main Line |
Terminus | ||
| Terminus | Grand Rapids – Bay City | McCord toward Bay City | ||
| Grand Rapids – Bay View | Comstock Park toward Bay View | |||
| Grand Rapids – Detroit | Fox toward Detroit | |||
| Preceding station | New York Central Railroad | Following station | ||
| Terminus | MCR Grand Rapids Branch | Dutton toward Jackson | ||
| Preceding station | Pennsylvania Railroad | Following station | ||
| Fuller toward Mackinaw City |
Grand Rapids & Indiana Railway | Moline toward Richmond | ||
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