St. Louis, MO (STL)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2012

$12,740,925

Station Ridership

FY 2012

353,696

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

In 2008, the St. Louis Gateway Transportation Center, a $26.4 million state-of-the-art intermodal facility in downtown St. Louis, opened to serve Amtrak, Greyhound, light rail, and city buses. The opening of the glass-and-steel facility marked the end to the temporary buildings Amtrak passengers used for 30 years. Gateway has high ceilings and large, multicolored windows and features a 24-hour operation. In addition to easy intermodal connections, the station offers free Wi-Fi access, an Amtrak’s Metropolitan Lounge for sleeping car passengers and a food court offering a wide variety of selections.

The Gateway Station was funded fifty-fifty between the local and federal government. Local resources came from a capital improvement sales tax and refinancing of bond issues. Amtrak has signed a lease on property near the station for the construction of a long-term parking lot, to be open later in 2009.

From 1978 until 2004, Amtrak was located in a complex of modular buildings meant to serve as a “temporary” station. In December 2004, Amtrak opened an interim passenger station that served as the station until the Gateway Station was finished. The modular buildings were 27 years old—well beyond their design life—and were within the footprint of the future intermodal station. The 4,000-square-foot building of masonry and steel was built entirely with Amtrak funds. Estimated cost of the project was more than $600,000. It has been converted into a base for Amtrak operating crews and mechanical forces.

Historically, railroad passengers departed and alighted from St. Louis Union Station, the largest and busiest train station in the world at the time of its construction in 1894, and today a National Historic Landmark. In 1985, Union Station was converted into a luxury hotel, entertainment complex, and shopping center, making it one of the largest adaptive reuse projects in the United States.

St. Louis Union Station is one of the country’s greatest architectural treasures with its design being a mélange of Romanesque styles. The station’s interior and exterior are a combination of Richardsonian Romanesque and French Romanesque, or Norman style. It was designed by German architect Theodore C. Link and was built at a cost of $6.5 million. Link modeled the station after Carcassonne, the walled, medieval city in southern France.

The Romanesque styles are exemplified in the station’s Headhouse and Grand Hall, with its 65-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling, sweeping archways, fresco and gold leaf detailing, mosaics, scagliola surfaces, and colored glass windows. One of the most impressive features of the Great Hall is the “Allegorical Window,” a handmade Tiffany stained glass window above the main entrance. The window depicts three women representing the main U.S. train stations during the 1890s—New York, San Francisco, and St. Louis.

The station's Victorian-engineered train shed is the largest single-span train shed ever constructed. It covers 11.5 acres, towers 140 feet high, and once boasted the greatest number of train tracks (32) in the nation.

At the turn of the century, in the heyday of American railroading, Fred Harvey opened one of his famous dining establishments in St. Louis Union Station. Harvey's restaurants offered friendly service and good food at reasonable prices, at a time where many restaurants were taking advantage of hungry train passengers on stop-overs. Harvey's waitresses were renowned for their hospitality. The Harvey Girls inspired the 1946 film, The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland.

Although Union Station still has a track leading into the train shed, it is used only occasionally and partially out-of-service.

St. Louis was founded in 1763 by French traders, who named the city for King Louis IX of France. St. Louis was once the fourth largest city in the U.S., and the 1904 World’s Fair and 1904 Olympics (the first held in the Western Hemisphere) took place during the city’s peak of influence. St. Louis is known as the “Gateway to the West,” because of its role in westward expansion. In 1965, the famous Gateway Arch was constructed as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial operated by the National Park Service.

St. Louis is a city full of attractions and has a vibrant culture. The St. Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, the St. Louis Zoological Park, and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum are just some of the many tourist attractions. St. Louis has long been associated with ragtime, jazz, and blues, and the city continues to offer a wide-array of entertainment and performing arts. Rock n’ roll artist Chuck Berry is a native St. Louisan, and continues to perform there several times a year.

Amtrak provides ticketing and baggage services at this facility.

St. Louis is served by 14 daily trains.