Union Stations: The Best, the Worst, and the Mildly Regrettable

This video might have the distinction of being the most positive media attention the Senate of Canada has received in years.

As a resident of Ogden, thank you for calling us out for having a car museum in our non-functioning union station. It's hilariously sad

The best part about Toronto Union Station that you didn't mention was the fact that it was in the literal heart of downtown, literally everything is within walking distance from it, unlike say LA which sorta sits on the edge of the city's downtown.

I fully expected Toronto's Union Union station to be #1... after getting snubbed on a certain list of urbanist sports stadiums I'm glad you've come to your senses ;)

As a Columbusite, I appreciate you finally highlighting how absolutely ridiculous it is that we have no passenger rail. It's been a long and hard battle, with many instances where we've been hopeful only for a plan to get shot down even with funding procured (looking at you, Kasich). Fingers crossed the new plan gets the go-ahead, but I won't hold my breath.

A couple other things that Toronto Union station has going for it are the new bus terminal, and it's connection to the PATH - an underground maze of tunnels that connects pretty much every major building downtown to Union Station. There's a good number of people who live in apartments connected to subway lines who can travel from home in the suburbs to any office tower downtown without going outside in the winter, all because of the PATH connection at Union.

The Raleigh Union Station (RUS) is the initial ambitious investment in Raleigh's transit future. It was built from the structure of a dilapidated warehouse in a since re-emerged warehouse district downtown. Phase 2 is breaking ground soon (you can see the site prep in the birdseye aerial in the video) and will include a a bus terminal (RUS Bus) and hundreds of new apartments in two towers. The train station was purpose built to support future regional rail service, and was a really good move by the city to push forward with this station.

I keep hearing rumors about restoration of Toronto-Chicago service. That would be nice. On another note, South Bend, Indiana's Union Station is still on a major rail line, but Norfolk Southern doesn't want it used for passenger rail service -- they even ripped out the concrete platforms and use the five tracks there to stage freight trains into the Elkhart yard. So Amtrak gets to use a "shed" a couple of miles to the west.

i’m willing to bet that St Paul Union Depot just missed the top ten mark, and i respect the data. it’s a rare survivor… closed in the 70’s but underwent a gorgeous restoration in 2010 and now serves amtrak and local rail again!

As someone who took the train between Chicago and St Louis alot, the differences are jarring between these stations. And I have said for decades that St Louis should have kept their Union Station as a mixed use train station and not as a tourist trap.

As a Torontonian, I was sure you'd only mention US stations so I was very pleasantly surprised by #1 haha

The "Go by Train" sign on the tower of Portland Union Station is chef's kiss. Something to clarify is that the Canadian senate is only there at Ottawa Union temporarily. The Centre Block (aka the main parliamentary complex) has been undergoing decade-long major rehabilitation work and so until the work is complete, the House of Commons temporarily moved to the West Block within Parliament Hill while the senate moved to the former Ottawa Union Station. Prior to that, the Station has been in limbo since 1966, when train service was moved to a modernist station in the city's eastern suburbs. Since then, it has been a government conference center, and there was a proposal for it to be the new Canadian Sports Hall of Fame Besides the long-distance trains serving Los Angeles Union Station, there are also many Amtrak Surfliner trains each day, as well as several bus connections with the San Joaquin trains. And for local service, besides the Metro Rail and Metrolink trains, quite a few bus lines stop at the Metro building just through the tunnel from Union Station. LA Union Station didn't open until May 1939. The city council of Los Angeles had desired since the 1910s to construct a Union station to replace the existing three terminal stations in Los Angeles: the Santa Fe's La Grande Station, the Southern Pacific's Central Station, and the Union Pacific's Salt Lake Station. Opposition by the railways led to a series of legal cases that were still not resolved by 1925, and a non-binding question was asked to voters which was passed. The station was designed by John and Donald Parkinson, a father and son team who also worked on Los Angeles City Hall, Ogden Union Station, Pomona station, and the LA Memorial Coliseum!

I love to use the word "AmShack" when referring to Houston's Amtrak station

Union station is one of my favourites in Toronto architecture! Glad to see it as #1. However it's heartbreaking to see so many beautiful union stations demolished or used so poorly 😢

I love that ours says GO BY TRAIN right up top. :)

Another thing that Denver Union Station has going for it is it also has an underground bus tunnel/station with tons of busses going in and out to all over the region. I was just thinking of RTD ones but it also has Bustang and Greyhound.

Philadelphia’s 30th street station, not named Union, is iconic. It’s a little small and it should have a better connection to SEPTA’s regional rail, but it has great potential.

Toronto Union also has the Union Pearson Express, a respectable airport rail link with 15m frequencies on a 25m journey to Pearson airport! When you consider UP + VIA + Amtrak + Ontario Northland + GO + TTC subway and streetcar and having a sizeable bus hub it's position on this list makes a lot of sense. I think it's the 2nd busiest station on the whole continent only behind NY Penn!

Also with Toronto Union its connected to the PATH so you can walk to a ton of downtown destinations without ever having to go to street level which is a godsend in the winter.

Toronto Union Station is incredible! It's absolutely massive in size has full service restaurants, food courts and shopping. It has a direct line to Pearson International Airport, connects to the TTC subway network, GO Regional rail network and the TTC Street Car network as well as GO Bus network. It's connected to the Scotiabank Arena and the Toronto PATH underground city network. It's been undergoing a decades long muti-billion dollar renovation and modernization while still keeping many of the stunning historical aspects. I hope you have a chance to come see it in person one day soon!