New Metropolitan Lounge is open in Chicago

I went down to Union Station today to pick up tickets for my trip on the Citiy of New Orleans in two weeks. I stopped by to see if the lounge was done. The entry way is the same . . . and the employee attitudes seemed to be too. Since I was walking in before any of the east coast trains arrived the agent was not expecting me. She looked at me like I was some sort of lab speciman, but after inspecting my newly purchsed tickets she half heartedly gave permission.

They enlarged the room quite a bit, and added some tvs. Asides from that I did not notice any improved amenities. I suspect that on real busy days, capacity still might be a problem. They also added an elarged locked room for stored luggage.

I will give a review of this room when I use it as a passenger on October 8.

Do we know if there was any attempt to install an air conditioning system seperate from the office building upstairs?

What they should do is just put out those portable stand up air conditioner untis like they had in the temporary lounge. They can be used on the weekend days in the summer and then be stored for the winter. Did they put new furtniture in or is it the came old sofas and coffee tables?

battalion51 said:

Do we know if there was any attempt to install an air conditioning system seperate from the office building upstairs?

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I could not tell when I was there. I try to remember to ask when I go back in two weeks.

Amfleet said:

What they should do is just put out those portable stand up air conditioner untis like they had in the temporary lounge. They can be used on the weekend days in the summer and then be stored for the winter. Did they put new furtniture in or is it the came old sofas and coffee tables?

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I should be embarrassed to say this, but I'm not sure. The furniture looked familiar, so I suspect they did not replace it with new furniture that looks exactly like it.

Then I guess my next question would be if they utalized the old furniture for the new lounge then was there any new additional seating added?

Steve, if you wouldn't mind do you think you could snap a few photos while you're in the lounge on your next trip?

Will do.

Aloha

I described the what I saw of the lounge in my trip report HNL to NOL. I have never seen the lounge before so could not compare. When I get back home tomorrow night an have a faster connection I will post the pictures I took of the lounge.

aloha

as promised here is 4 pictures of the lounge panarama, not included is the reception desk









My question? How much has changed?

I'm pretty sure they didn't have the flat panel TV's before, other than that I'm not too sure. Looks like there's plenty of room in there though.

Aloha

I have a question about the pictures I posted in this section. What happens if or when I rearrange the original page the image came from?

Mahalo

Is there a separate exit to the tracks that would allow some type of priority boarding or do you still have to get in line with the rest of the passengers?

There is still the one exit that leads to the run through track on the east side of the station. There is no additional set up to facilitate priority boardings, so I think that things would operate the same. I will know more when I travel on Friday to New Orleans on 59.

denmarks said:

Is there a separate exit to the tracks that would allow some type of priority boarding or do you still have to get in line with the rest of the passengers?

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Aloha

I commented on that in My trip report. I noted that the sleeper passengers had to cross thrugh the coach passengers while boarding. I wondered if that is always true or only on that one track. We did however have a second line to board.