In 1996, residents in five adjacent counties in both Missouri and Kansas approved a 1/8 cent sales tax, part of which funded restoration of the grand Kansas City Union Station. Image by Roy Inman, courtesy of Union Station Kansas City, Inc.
The New York Times recently published an article chronicling the lives of seven Midwestern communities and their train stations, including Cincinnati Union Terminal and Kansas City Union Station, which were transformed into popular museum centers and community gathering places – while remaining active Amtrak stops. Reporter Mitch Smith writes, “Now calls for preservation and renovation have cropped up all around, out of a sense that civic identity rests, in part, with a train depot.” Many towns large and small have come to that same conclusion over the years, and Amtrak created the Great American Stations Project in 2006 to offer assistance in these efforts.
Want to learn more about these grassroots efforts to revitalize train stations? Check out our case studies, quarterly newsletter and station news from around the country. If you’re in an Amtrak-served community, we’d love to hear about what your train station means to you. Send us a note at GreatAmericanStations@amtrak.com.
Amtrak established the Great American Stations Project in 2006 to educate communities on the benefits of redeveloping train stations, offer tools to community leaders to preserve their stations, and provide the appropriate Amtrak resources.
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