Union Station (South Bend, Indiana)

Union Station Technology Center is a former union train station in South Bend, Indiana in the United States.

South Bend
Exterior of Union Station
General information
Location	326 West South Street South Bend, Indiana
Coordinates	41°40′9.59″N 86°15′17.10″W
Platforms	3
Tracks	5
Construction
Structure type	Art Deco architecture
History
Opened	1929
Closed	1971
Former services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station Lydick toward Chicago Main Line Mishawaka toward New York North Liberty toward Zearing Kankakee Belt Route Terminus Lydick toward St. Joseph St. Joseph – South Bend Niles toward Benton Harbor Benton Harbor – South Bend Preceding station Grand Trunk Western Railroad Following station Olivers toward Chicago Main Line Studebaker toward Port Huron

History

A New York Central train approaches South Bend Union Station

Opened in 1929 and situated across the tracks from the Studebaker auto plant, the building served the New York Central Railroad and Grand Trunk Western Railroad. It was designed by the architectural firm Fellheimer & Wagner.^[1] NYC's Detroit-Chicago "Great Steel Fleet" and GTW's Chicago-Canada trains used this station.

When the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 to make the Penn Central Transportation Company, it used the station as well. The last trains departed in 1971 when newly created Amtrak moved its operations to the South Shore Line station on the city's western outskirts about 1.8 miles (2.9 km) west of Union Station constructed by the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad a year earlier in 1970.

The building was purchased by South Bend native and University of Notre Dame graduate Kevin M. Smith in 1979.^[2]

Union Station Technology Center today is in use by Global Access Point, which renovated the facility to become a data center, housing computing equipment from outside companies. The Technology Center is a state-of-the-art hub for digital information, providing a location for small businesses, data centers, data transport and carrier operations.

The railway corridor adjacent to the station carries not only trains, but also a fiber-optic trunkline. The Union Station Technology Center functions as a colocation center.^[3]

In November 2019, the South Bend Tribune, the city's 147-year-old daily newspaper, moved its offices into Union Station Technology Center. The Tribune previously had been located at 225 West Colfax Avenue in South Bend.

See also

• Proposed new South Shore Line station in South Bend
• Union Station (disambiguation)

References

1. Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 314–315. ISBN 9780471143895.
2. "Global Access Point - Union Station Technology Center".
3. Moreno, Hugo (September 29, 2014). "How Cloud and Fiber Are Turning Abandoned Factories Into Innovation Centers". Forbes. Retrieved 25 May 2022.

External links

• South Bend Union Station (Great Railroad Stations -- TrainWeb)
• Historic South Bend Railroads and Stations (South Bend's Historical Heritage) Archived 2010-03-30 at the Wayback Machine
• Union Station Technology Center Archived 2016-12-29 at the Wayback Machine (Global Access Point website)