Passenger Trains > LA Union Station restoration

For most of the people who pass through its halls, Los Angeles Union Station is just another stop on their morning subway commute, the end of Metrolink's Antelope Valley line or a transfer point on their Amtrak train ride up the coast.

That could soon change, however, with Metro officials and planners working on a multimillion-dollar restoration and revitalization effort to transform the historic 77-year-old transportation hub into a hub for the arts, shopping and dining, too.

"We're doing fabulous things to this iconic property" said Ken Pratt, Metro's director of Union Station property management. "One of my great joys is to preserve the station's state of elegance while bringing it into the future."

Union Station, with its Art Deco- and Mission Revival-inspired architecture, opened in 1939 to much fanfare. The station replaced La Grande Station and Central Station and served to consolidate rail services from a number of companies - including Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific - into one terminal station.

"Los Angeles was a ball of spaghetti of railway tracks" Pratt said. "It was a mess, and Union Station helped fix that."

However, within about 20 years the station saw a dramatic decrease in popularity as flying and driving became the preferred modes of transportation. By the 1970s, the number of trains coming through the station had fallen to less than a dozen.

Metro bought Union Station for $75 million in 2011 and has spent the intervening years restoring the historic landmark to the sparkle and sheen of its glory days, in hopes of revitalizing its ridership as well.

Since Metro acquired the property, approximately $22 million has been spent on its restoration, according to Pratt, and in February another $24 million was approved.

"We took the Spanish tiles off the roof, tens of thousands of them, the whole roof, and fixed leaks and holes and put them back in the same place," Pratt said.

"We didn't have air conditioning or heating until six months ago. Now we have the most efficient, sustainable system that exists in the city of Los Angeles. It's an amazing engineering feat."

Scaffolding to clean and replace the graying acoustical tile that makes up the upper half of the interior's walls went up last week, and support beans have been temporarily walled off where decorative tile is being restored.

"We've gone to extreme efforts to make sure our restoration efforts match the original vision of the station," Pratt said.

"We have 117 different patterns of tile in the building, and as we replace chipped or broken tiles, most people can't tell which is the old and which is new."

The efforts to revitalize Union Station will serve as a test of the county's efforts to coax more residents onto the region's expanding rail system.

Over the next 10 years, rail lines will be built to connect Union Station with Santa Monica, Leimert Park and West Los Angeles. Plans to extend that network farther - to Van Nuys, Artesia, Torrance, Claremont and West Hollywood - are included in a proposed ballot measure that would bring in approximately $120 billion over the next 40 years.

Perhaps the most dramatic change planned for the station is still several years away: a multimillion-dollar remodel of the passenger concourse area, which will transform the low-slung, 38-foot-wide tunnel to the train platforms into a 500-foot-wide, airy commercial area.

The renovation is part of a $2.5-billion project to increase capacity and reduce travel time at Union Station. Starting in 2019, crews will begin extending some track south over the 101 Freeway to link up with the rail yard along the Los Angeles River, transforming the station's dead-end platforms into a loop to increase efficiency.

"Metro has envisioned this since the '40s," said Mark Dierking, Metro's community relations manager. "We want to have six or seven tracks across the 101 Freeway. Part of the issue is Union Station was designed for a lot less people, but they're looking at it and they're working on it."

In the meantime, Metro plans to boost interest in the station transformation by tapping into its local emerging artists community with a series of summer concerts managed by LiveNation, Pratt said.

The plan is for the musicians, whose genres will range from alternative rock to R&B and Latin to jazz, to play in the rose garden south of the main passenger terminal.

"It's going to be more of an experience, the whole station more customer-friendly," Pratt said. "We want the station to be the destination."

Along the arcade adjacent to the rose garden - through which passengers were escorted when the station originally opened - Pratt envisions a farmers market where visitors can browse through California wines, cheeses and handmade goods.

"Commuters and travelers will be able to buy fresh vegetables, artisan breads, or maybe some flowers so you get out of trouble when you get home," he said.

Another major draw will be the updated Fred Harvey Room, once home to the last Harvey House restaurant to open in the United States.

The cavernous room - although padlocked and stripped of many interior furnishings since its closing in 1967 - features high-backed booths, towering ceilings and an inlaid cement tile floor that resembles a Navajo blanket.

The restaurant was once popular with travelers and soldiers waiting for World War II troop trains.

Celebrities like Sinatra, Bogart and Bacall would take their private rail cars and come have a drink at the bar," Pratt said.

But within a year, Metro says, the room will house a microbrewery and gastropub, serving California beers and local fare.

Across the way, there are plans for another, more casual dining option in the form of Cafe Crepe.

"The cafe will be opening soon," Pratt said, "You can sit at a table in the
historic waiting room or under umbrellas on the rose garden patio."

In the ticketing hall, which is typically roped off, Pratt hopes to attract a series of vendors as well as open an exhibition restaurant where diners could sit close to the kitchen.

"We want to eventually take out the old ticketing offices and put in an eclectic restaurant where you can watch the chefs working while you eat," he said.

Pratt is one of those thousands of commuters who use the train to get to and from work - "I ride the train every day from Orange County, and in the evening it has the bar car" - but says the job is well worth the travel.

"I feel like I'm in 'Willy Wonka,' like I got lucky with the golden ticket," Pratt said. "I get to come up on the train and do this stuff every day.

"Union Station can become the centerpiece of L.A. again, the great face of Metro."

Since it's on the National Register of Historic Places, there should be an effort to maintain an appearance of what it looked like when it was completed in 1939.  

To that end, I would think that would mean that the advertising stickers should be removed from the pedestrian tunnel and the advertising posters and holding containers should be removed from the support posts that hold up the platform awnings.  Those weren't there in 1939.  They were added about 10-20 years ago.

Oh, but wait.  To do something like THAT would be stepping on the toes of certain interests who are MAKING MONEY.  

So much for THAT idea!     

This has always been my favorite station in the country since I first arrived there for my first trip to Disneyland in the 1950's.  But today's station is marred (or at least was on my last visit 3 years ago) by a constant parade of homeless people in the courtyard and waiting room. They need to be "relocated" if the retail aspects of the station is to be a success. 

Homeless is gone with the new owners.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This has always been my favorite station in the
> country since I first arrived there for my first
> trip to Disneyland in the 1950's.  But today's
> station is marred (or at least was on my last
> visit 3 years ago) by a constant parade of
> homeless people in the courtyard and waiting room.
> They need to be "relocated" if the retail aspects
> of the station is to be a success. 

I doubt the "relocation" of the "human" pigeons will be any more successful than attempts to deter the avian variety.

"Part of the issue is Union Station was designed for a lot less people, but they're looking at it and they're working on it"..."We want the station to be the destination."

Competing goals if you ask me.  Seems like Metro is an entrepreneurial taxing agency that will do anything for a buck.  I hope they are successful preserving the character of Union Station.

Homeless and public transportation seem to go hand in hand pretty much everywhere.  Stations and cars are convenient places to get out of inclement conditions and public systems don't have the budget or will to run off people to the neighbors property.

cajon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For most of the people who pass through its halls,
> Los Angeles Union Station is just another stop on
> their morning subway commute, the end of
> Metrolink's Antelope Valley line or a transfer
> point on their Amtrak train ride up the coast.
>
......

Last I checked it is illegal, unprofessional and immoral to post an article per verbatim without citing and acknowledging the source.

One indication of the possibilities was a little test I saw there several years ago.
One section of the ceiling tiles was suddenly much brighter and more attractive.
When I asked, I was told that workers had manually scrubbed off six decades of tobacco smoke; that brown "tar" muted all the interior colors.
After a couple of weeks it was coated with something so it looked like the rest of the interior.
Now maybe the original colors will show the architect's design, and will last absent tobacco smoke.

OliveHeights Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Homeless and public transportation seem to go hand
> in hand pretty much everywhere.  Stations and
> cars are convenient places to get out of inclement
> conditions and public systems don't have the
> budget or will to run off people to the neighbors
> property.

You need an Amtrak or Metrolink ticket to use the main waiting room and there's plenty of visible security.  In my two trips through there earlier this year, I didn't see any issues with homeless people either inside the station or the outside areas that are part of the station property.

I found the following comment fascinating:

""Metro has envisioned this since the '40s," said Mark Dierking, Metro's community relations manager. "We want to have six or seven tracks across the 101 Freeway. Part of the issue is Union Station was designed for a lot less people, but they're looking at it and they're working on it."

It's fascinating because Metro was not created until 1993.

Wonderful facility for its time.
Hope they don't screw it up, like by using air rights and putting a Madison Sq. Garden on top of it.

At one time a proposal to build a sports venue above the passenger platforms was floated. I don't remember much happening after that.

OCV

This beautiful and historic station has never been anyone’s final destination.  Never.  It is, instead, a convenient place in LA for long-distance and medium-distance passenger trains to terminate.   And LAUS (to use its present acronym) is only truly convenient to -- no surprise -- people who work for  LA Metro, which now owns the station.  They are the only people whose actual final destination is LAUS.  Everyone else needs to board another train or a streetcar or get into a bus or a taxi or an automobile in order to get to their true final destination.

And people transferring to some other form of transportation will probably not have much spare time to stay at the station to enjoy the new attractions that Metro plans to add to this historic jewel.

Perhaps Metro is trying to turn the station into a destination in its own right.  I don’t see how that can work well and still allow the station to do a superb job of serving its primary function -- a place that can easily handle the needs of passengers getting on and off of  long-distance and medium-distance and commuter trains and streetcars.  Does Metro really intend to put the needs of passengers first?  It should.

I must say that I do really appreciate the restoration of this beautiful depot that Metro has done that I read about in the post above.  That is wonderful.  

But -- I do not at all like Metro’s plan to demolish all the historic old ticket counters and completely gut that area and turn it into a restaurant.  They should, instead, restore all the ticket counters and, instead of a restaurant, turn the long-unused ticket-counter area into a visitor-information area, staffed by friendly long-time and well-informed local residents.  This area would be where travelers could get reliable and useful and interesting  information about many things a traveler might need to know -- local transit schedules, hotel and restaurant recommendations, and info about whatever local businesses a visitor might want or need to patronize, as well as local events.  And this area should be staffed the same hours the station is open.

Yes, people can get that info on the web, but, really -- isn’t it much better to get reliable info from  friendly people, rather than a possibly phony review on a site such as Yelp?

Local LA area residents have a wealth of information that all travelers could benefit from, and this “Friendly Traveler Information Ambassador” service could become very popular, if enough of the right people are hired to staff it. 
 

Homeless don't seem to be a problem at airports. Security issues, you know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/16 23:30 by SanDiegan.

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

[sip]

> Perhaps Metro is trying to turn the station into a
> destination in its own right.  I don’t see how
> that can work well and still allow the station to
> do a superb job of serving its primary function --
> a place that can easily handle the needs of
> passengers getting on and off of  long-distance
> and medium-distance and commuter trains and
> streetcars.  Does Metro really intend to put the
> needs of passengers first?  It should.

A visit to Union Station in Washington DC will help.

They are expanding the section devoted to the Train Station because perhaps too much was changed to the shopping mall, but still that station is considered a success.

Brian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/16 08:50 by choodude.

SDGreg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You need an Amtrak or Metrolink ticket to use the
> main waiting room and there's plenty of visible
> security.  

That's easy enough to get around.  The homeless person buys a realtively cheap round trip ticket from Los Angeles to Glendale or Cal State LA at 0001 hours and that legally entitles him to hang around the station until the last train departs for one of those places on that calendar day.

So far there's no law that says he has to take the "next train out."  He can take the last train, or buy another ticket at one minute after midnight and repeat the process for another twenty-four hours.

One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to circumvent certain laws and policies.     



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/16 15:45 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SDGreg Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You need an Amtrak or Metrolink ticket to use
> the
> > main waiting room and there's plenty of visible
> > security.  
>
> That's easy enough to get around.  The homeless
> person buys a realtively cheap round trip ticket
> from Los Angeles to Glendale or Cal State LA at
> 0001 hours and that legally entitles him to hang
> around the station until the last train departs
> for one of those places on that calendar day.
>
> So far there's no law that says he has to take the
> "next train out."  He can take the last train, or
> buy another ticket at one minute after midnight
> and repeat the process for another twenty-four
> hours.
>
> One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to
> circumvent certain laws and policies.

I've encountered "transients" firsthand at LAUS when I'd wait for the redeye AmBus to take me to Bakersfield, so I can catch the first northbound San Joaquin to return to the Bay Area. This was several years ago before LAUS become more populated with actual train passengers.

ALL the transients I've seen did not exercise their rocket science skills to utilize the tactics you mentioned. They just wanted a temporary shelter, so they'd come in, try to hide in a corner and get some rest. Security guard shows up, challenges him for a ticket, then the meek ones drag themselves out. The more aggressive ones usually encounters a group (2-3) law enforcement officers several minutes later after the security guard calls for back up.

Security presence heightened after that convenience store ("Famima") opened near the ticket office few years ago, no doubt to protect the employees and customers from transient harassment. From what I gather, Famima closed last year or year before.

https://www.metro.net/projects/la-union-station/


Here is the web site on the re due of LAUPT.  Its a bit out of date now, but an on going project.

The main structure will not change on the outside.  The major change will be in the tunnels to the tracks and the through track construction.

Someone made the idea of using the old ticketing area as an "City information Center".  Sure do not need all the existing ticket windows.  Santa Fe had something like 11 windows, SP about the same, and UP, 5 or 6.

I too hate to see the ticketing windows removed, but that is a lot of choice area for income.  I can say I worked at both the SP and Santa Fe Windows, 1955-1967.

Before Metro purchase, a plan to put housing over the tracks.  Not an bad idea, be great all weather protection.

I'm not a daily user, but roll through there frequently.  As the previous poster mentioned, the bums have moved on for the most part.  Rare to walk through the terminal and not see either Amtrak PD, or LASD.   Out front, I usually see at least a couple private security folks.  

Pretty exciting to have witnessed the rebirth of the station over the past several years.  

I finally rode the Dodger Shuttle last Wednesday from San Bernardino.  Darn 14 inning game put outbound during rush hour....glad I wasn't stuck on the I-10!   

If if you have an opportunity, please visit!

Fathers' Day gift from my son was a tour of the station and the Metro building last Saturday.  Sponsored by the Los Angeles Conservancy, it was very interesting.  Emphasis was on history and architecture and I learned a lot.  I have watched, during infrequent visits, the restoration going on.  Sure hope that the character and history of the ticketing hall is not destroyed,even if they only save part of it. 

The through tracks are a good idea, especially for those of us who live in San Diego County.  

We may not like all the plans and ideas, but it is still beter than an Amshack  like some cities.