Chicago Union Station Upgrades

Apparently there's a lot of work being done, and I'm just posting what has been upgraded so far. Currently, the passenger services desk has been opened up and there will be a gift shop (Amtrak stuff!!!) there as well. There is also a service center in the middle of the great hall, apparently the ticket agents will be there and will only accept credit card/checks. The old ticket desk will have 2 agents who can take cash and 4 car rental companies.

Pics:

Heh. I saw the ticket counter in the Great Hall and thought, "Whoa... awesome..." before noticing the advertisements on the wall.

Where is the Passenger Services desk?

SarahZ said:

Heh. I saw the ticket counter in the Great Hall and thought, "Whoa... awesome..." before noticing the advertisements on the wall.

Where is the Passenger Services desk?

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Same place, just they tore the wall out and knocked out another wall to extend the room

Nice pics, thanks for the update Tyler!

TylerP42 said:

SarahZ said:

Heh. I saw the ticket counter in the Great Hall and thought, "Whoa... awesome..." before noticing the advertisements on the wall.

Where is the Passenger Services desk?

Click to expand...

Same place, just they tore the wall out and knocked out another wall to extend the room

Click to expand...

Oh wow. No wonder I didn't recognize the area. Is that little convenience store still there, on the corner of the hallway, or did that get sacrificed in the expansion?

SarahZ said:

TylerP42 said:

SarahZ said:

Heh. I saw the ticket counter in the Great Hall and thought, "Whoa... awesome..." before noticing the advertisements on the wall.

Where is the Passenger Services desk?

Click to expand...

Same place, just they tore the wall out and knocked out another wall to extend the room

Click to expand...

Oh wow. No wonder I didn't recognize the area. Is that little convenience store still there, on the corner of the hallway, or did that get sacrificed in the expansion?

Click to expand...

Still there! It used to be a hallway/mini room for employees I believe.

Hi TylerP42 ! You sound just like me when I was 18 years old to ! I have just two questions for you, will the gift shop be run by "Amtrak" or somebody else? I would like grab some "Amtrak" stuff like Amtrak blankets. Trying to get them on the LSL is kind of hit and miss. Can you keep us informed of the progress of the "Gift Shop" ? Thank you...

gaspeamtrak said:

Hi TylerP42 ! You sound just like me when I was 18 years old to ! I have just two questions for you, will the gift shop be run by "Amtrak" or somebody else? I would like grab some "Amtrak" stuff like Amtrak blankets. Trying to get them on the LSL is kind of hit and miss. Can you keep us informed of the progress of the "Gift Shop" ? Thank you...

Click to expand...

It is my understanding that it will be an Amtrak store, run by amtrak.

I'm a little sad to see stuff going in there. I always enjoyed the solitude sitting in there

I enjoyed the solitude as well...but at the same time I did not enjoy seeing a valuable piece of real estate being underutilized.

I look forward to seeing the Great Hall as a vibrant, functioning part of the station property. I enjoyed seeing that very thing in Toronto.

Wow, cool. Will be looking forward of seeing this when I am there in Dec.

I didn't get a time line of when the store will be added, but my guess is before the holiday season.

This is a little bit odd given that Amtrak was planning to move the ticket desk *again* in conjunction with the relocation of the Metropolitan Lounge, which is apparently funded and will be operating by late 2016.

Maybe part of the area behind the old ticket desk had to be cleared for the construction work or something.

How will.the new ticketing area be affected by rental events in the Great Hall?

neroden said:

This is a little bit odd given that Amtrak was planning to move the ticket desk *again* in conjunction with the relocation of the Metropolitan Lounge, which is apparently funded and will be operating by late 2016.

Maybe part of the area behind the old ticket desk had to be cleared for the construction work or something.

Click to expand...

Not sure. Employee said that was the new area.

I know this has been posted before. Page 22 shows the proposed layout.

http://www.unionstationmp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Union-Station-Master_Plan_Tech-Memo-1-FINAL-12-20-2013.pdf

It looks on those plans that they could still block off the Great Hall for events if they wanted to. The Amtrak ticket counter is about where the Metro deli was, in the passage before it opens up into the Great Hall. And the Great Hall is marked as "passenger circulation and lobbies" not as a "waiting area" so these plans clearly are not counting using the Great Hall as a waiting room.

zephyr17 said:

It looks on those plans that they could still block off the Great Hall for events if they wanted to. The Amtrak ticket counter is about where the Metro deli was, in the passage before it opens up into the Great Hall. And the Great Hall is marked as "passenger circulation and lobbies" not as a "waiting area" so these plans clearly are not counting using the Great Hall as a waiting room.

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It's in the middle of the great hall (the service center)

Yes, sorry, got caught up the diagrams for the greater changes and was thinking of the relocated ticket counter shown there, not the new service center in the picture.

The service center in the middle of the Great Hall looks like it could be easily taken down/moved for events. It's probably temporary as they need to move the escalators/stairs to where the ticket counter was located.

So, then, only two ticket representatives at the old counter during events?

AmtrakBlue said:

The service center in the middle of the Great Hall looks like it could be easily taken down/moved for events. It's probably temporary as they need to move the escalators/stairs to where the ticket counter was located.

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The former ticket counter will become car rental places.

TylerP42 said:

AmtrakBlue said:

The service center in the middle of the Great Hall looks like it could be easily taken down/moved for events. It's probably temporary as they need to move the escalators/stairs to where the ticket counter was located.

Click to expand...

The former ticket counter will become car rental places.

Click to expand...

And the new ticket counter, shown on the doc I posted, is in the hallway into the Great Hall which I'm guessing is currently under construction.

OK, that makes sense: they had to get out of part of the old ticket counter location for construction there, but they don't have the new ticket counter (in the Metro Deli location) finished yet. So the Great Hall kiosk is the temporary location.

The car rental places are getting a temporary location too, because the final plan demolishes the old ticket counter entirely. I wonder where the car rental places will go when they're done.

Just saw this on Facebook