Nostalgia & History > Switching From Grand Central Station to CNW Terminal, Part 2

I just received this email from Bill Howes:

Marty,

Several people on Trainorders.com have speculated as to why C&O/B&O settled on Chicago's North Western Station in 1969. Here's the story:  I was director of C&O/B&O Rail and Marine Passenger Services at the time. The search for a new Chicago station for our current passenger trains (C&O 8, 9 and 13  and B&O 5, 6, 7 and 10) was prompted by the Company's decision to tear down B&O's Grand Central Station and develop the very substantial amount of related downtown Chicago property. This had been a long-time goal of both the City and the Railroad.

We seriously considered Union Station "Too crowded", (they said) and IC's Central Station "Too costly" and thought about La Salle Street and Dearborn.  But I was drawn to North Western Station. I knew Ed Burkhardt, Assistant General Manager-Staff at C&NW, from his days at the N&W when I (then in C&O/B&O's Industrial Engineering Department) was on a joint N&W-C&O/B&O team studying some of the troubled railroads in the northeast. When we approached Ed, we discovered C&NW also wanted something from B&O: Resolution of a dispute between C&NW and B&O (or the B&OCT) regarding the old Chicago Great Western freight house adjacent to Grand Central. We ended up striking a deal that benefited both parties. Our time at North Western Station was short but very fine. C&O/B&O passengers benefited from the wide variety of stores and services in the station and the easy connections with C&NW trains. A significant number of our interline passengers were going to and from Great Lakes, Milwaukee and Green Bay served by the C&NW.

Bill



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/20 16:42 by MartyBernard.

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> I just received this email from Bill Howes:
>

Thanks. I was there for it and knew of some deliberation, but didn't hear it in such detail.

TAW

Facinating stuff, thanks for following up!

A large portion of that stubstantial downtown Chicago property remains undeveloped even to this day over half a century later.   

     Tom

towazy Wrote:
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> A large portion of that stubstantial downtown
> Chicago property remains undeveloped even to this
> day over half a century later.   
>

Many of the ordinary employees (y'know, shut up, this doesn't involve you) knew the history - GC was built on land leased from the Chicago School District. They couldn't sell land they didn't own. BN found out the same thing in Seattle in the 70s after they sold the NP right of way that is now the Burke Gilman trail, land that they had deeded to the city years before. GC could have been developed in the same way as Dearborn Station.

TAW