It needs a total re-vamp and a new business model. I think a large quality museum would be a good start.

Musée d'Orsay?

I think it's been mentioned before that a transit museum could be a logical and consistent draw to Union Station. An impressive collection of steam locomotives, street cars, and Brass Era St. Louis manufactured automobiles would be awesome. Of course there's already a transit museum in St. Louis, and it's nowhere near Union Station.

I think we can increase awareness and foot traffic if we through an event there. If we Union Station is a great place but I know many people who have never been or never think of it as a place to visit, ( I am guilty of this). I really want to see more events that everyone in the STL region can visit in the winter time, (January and February).

Events? Events are held there. Just make it a holding pen for zombies and call it a day.

innov8ion wrote:Events? Events are held there. Just make it a holding pen for zombies and call it a day.

If there are then I never hear of them.

EDIT:
They aren't on the calendar of events for Union Station.

Link:
http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/go/m ... entsOnly=1

Throwing an event in STL for the STL region is a thought/idea/dream I have been having lately. I think it is becoming a personal project.

Events: http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/go/P ... 2129970466

innov8ion wrote:Events: http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/go/P ... 2129970466

I don't know where you found this, I apologize for my previous statement.

as I've said time and time again, it should become a Train Station again. I see some sort of retrofit with incorporation of the HSR to Chi-city. It would be so very awesome if we could get back to a density that justified multiple train stations connected by light-rail/subway lines.

ElephantintheRoom wrote:Union Station's Train Shed was great back in the day but now its just an half abandoned mall, a parking lot, a Hard Rock Cafe, Landry's and nothing else. This place has potential for great things but what to put there?

I proposed this in another thread (so sorry to those who already read it), but I've been thinking a Ferris/observation wheel jutting up and through the Trainshed could take a nice step forward toward re-activating Union Station.


A poorly done MS Paint vision of a Union Station Ferris wheel...needs to be scaled down...

Projected cut-out (200 ft. long by 50 ft. wide) of Trainshed roof...

Using a north-south line, the Ferris wheel doesn't eclipse the classic Market Street entrance of Union Station and it is also fully visible to families and friends exiting Busch Stadium onto Clark Street, who might then be influenced to either walk or Metrolink to Union Station. I envision this wheel carrying passengers up past the roof, taking in great 360-degree views of the city, then dipping back down over the edge of the lagoon and into an active Trainshed. The best part of this -- no more parking lot under the Train Shed! Give it back over to activity, put in a beer garden, bring in some classic cabooses and engines to explore and some Midway games to try your luck at.

From there, it's a matter of programming music, theater and other entertainment (there was a big crowd in Navy Pier for a Puppet Pirate troupe this summer, for god's sake...puppet pirates!) both inside and out. This isn't a fix-all solution, but it would get the ball rolling for Union Station once more, that's for sure.

Hey Marriot -- looking for a marketing/events manager/programmer. Hi. I'm Kevin.

I like the ferris wheel. I feel like if the City Museum expanded, Union Station would be a great place.

I'm sorry, but I don't share the enthusiasm for the ferris wheel. I think its just a little too tacky/gimicky. If you want great views of the city, I'd rather McKee build a residential tower with a viewing deck at the end of the Gateway Mall.

I agree that Union Station would be much better served as part of the HSR line (if it comes to fruition). Its a much more functional for that than the current Amtrak station. I think it would also serve business as well as tourism. Whereas a ferris wheel really only serves tourists (people that Union Station really only serves now) and that doesn't seem to be working.

the central scrutinizer wrote:

innov8ion wrote:Events? Events are held there. Just make it a holding pen for zombies and call it a day.

There used to be a great concert series held there years ago on the Lake Stage (and the back parking lot for bigger acts like the T-Birds, John Hammond, etc), but the House of Blues pretty much killed that. Drew large crowds.

Hmm, currently I am interested in the history of events STL has held. I was going to just do a decade, but I'm almost twenty and reading this post makes me want to go back further.

Any suggestions on how far back I should go? And any idea of where I could find the history of events?

I contacted RFT and STL Post-dispatch. They suggested the library.

Thank You

I would like to see a major dig-down under the shed and make it an MLS Stadium with shed as a roof over it...

sirshankalot wrote:I would like to see a major dig-down under the shed and make it an MLS Stadium with shed as a roof over it...

Good idea. Soccer would be more exciting with posts that hold up the roof sticking up out of the field. More like giant pin-ball.


Union Station by Jackson Glasgow, on Flickr

pat wrote:I'm sorry, but I don't share the enthusiasm for the ferris wheel. I think its just a little too tacky/gimicky.

Agreed! If the current mall can't get people down there - why do you think a tourist trap (located away from the tourists) will be any better at getting them down. I kind of like the idea of a soccer stadium under the shed.

pat wrote:Its (Union Station) a much more functional for that than the current Amtrak station.

New Station = "siding pull-through" station - train pulls onto siding track(s) off the main line but train remains parallel to mainline while loading. This is the preferred configuration for anything but the busiest stations (and even then really only when all the traffic are passenger trains).

Union Station of ol' = stub-end terminal wyed off mainline - in order for trains to get out of the US they had to back onto the mainline. Considering these main-line tracks are currently used for freight and the fact that any true HSR (200 mph+) will be required by the FRA to be completely separated from freight - I don't see it happening.

Could you run HSR next to /above Metrolink around the Marriott and have the HSR station directly above/next to the Metrolink station at Union Station? Yes I am sure you could - but at some point we are going REALLY crazy to have trains go where modern trains don't really want to go (tight turns for no reasons).

My "Chicago" style plan (Make Big Plans (Make No Small Plans)) would allow for Union Station to be used again, but then again my plan is probably to ambitious to even bring up.

timeforguinness wrote:

sirshankalot wrote:I would like to see a major dig-down under the shed and make it an MLS Stadium with shed as a roof over it...

Wins the thread. Where do I donate?

I feel like my butts been kicked. This is a great idea. I guess I should be focusing as St. Louis as the audience, not the nation. I aim too high.