Dallas Union Station

Dallas Union Station, officially Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station (or simply EBJ Union Station), also known as Dallas Union Terminal, is a large intermodal railroad station in Dallas, Texas. It is the third busiest Amtrak station in Texas, behind Fort Worth Central Station and San Antonio station. It serves DART light rail Blue and Red lines, Trinity Railway Express commuter rail and Amtrak inter-city rail. It is located on Houston Street, between Wood and Young Streets, in the Reunion district of Downtown Dallas. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station Dallas, TX
General information
Other names	Dallas Union Station EBJ Union Station
Location	400 South Houston Street Dallas, Texas United States
Coordinates	32°46′34″N 96°48′27″W
Owned by	City of Dallas
Line(s)	Dallas/UP
Platforms	1 side and 2 island platforms
Tracks	5 2 through tracks
Train operators	Amtrak, TRE and DART light rail
Connections	Dallas Streetcar DART: 9, 45, 47, 214, 224, 306, 378, 383
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Parking	20 long-term and 20 short-term spaces
Accessible	Yes
Architect	Jarvis Hunt
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Other information
Station code	Amtrak: DAL
Fare zone	TRE Eastern
History
Opened	October 14, 1916 (1916-10-14)
Rebuilt	1996, 2010
Previous names	Dallas Union Terminal
Passengers
FY 2023	49,196 (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Fort Worth toward Los Angeles or San Antonio Texas Eagle Mineola toward Chicago Preceding station Trinity Railway Express Following station Victory toward T&P Station Trinity Railway Express Terminus Preceding station Dallas Area Rapid Transit Following station Convention Center toward UNT Dallas Blue Line West End toward Downtown Rowlett Convention Center toward Westmoreland Red Line West End toward Parker Road Terminus Dallas Streetcar Greenbriar toward Bishop Arts
Proposed services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Fort Worth Terminus Crescent Proposed Texas Section Mineola toward New York
Former services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Fort Worth toward Laredo or Houston Inter-American Longview toward Chicago Corsicana toward Houston Texas Eagle Until 1995 Mineola toward Chicago Fort Worth toward Houston Lone Star 1975–1979 Cleburne toward Chicago Preceding station Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Following station Fort Worth toward San Angelo San Angelo – Dallas Terminus Duncanville toward Cleburne Cleburne–Paris Reinhardt toward Paris Preceding station Burlington Route Following station Fort Worth toward Denver Denver – Teague Fort Worth and Denver Railway Waxahachie toward Teague Preceding station Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Following station Waxahachie toward Teague Teague – Minneapolis  Irving toward Minneapolis Preceding station Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad Following station Waxahachie toward Galveston Main Line via Dallas Highland Park toward St. Louis Roselawn toward Denton Dallas and Denton Terminus Preceding station Missouri Pacific Railroad Following station Fort Worth toward El Paso Texas and Pacific Railway Main Line Terrell toward New Orleans Preceding station St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Following station Irving Terminus Dallas Branch Terminus Preceding station St. Louis Southwestern Railway Following station Terminus Main Line Addison toward St. Louis Addison toward Fort Worth Fort Worth local Terminus
Dallas Union Terminal
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Texas State Antiquities Landmark
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Dallas Landmark
Dallas Union Station Dallas Union Station
Area	5 acres (2.0 ha)
NRHP reference No.	75001966
TSAL No.	8200000214
RTHL No.	6908
DLMK No.	H/5
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 29, 1975
Designated TSAL	January 1, 1981
Designated RTHL	1979
Designated DLMK	January 17, 1977

Services

Texas Eagle #421 in Dallas Union Station led by Amtrak P42DC #69

Looking across tracks and platforms

The station is served by Amtrak's Texas Eagle with Chicago as the eastern terminus and either San Antonio or Los Angeles as the western terminus and later by proposed Crescent (train). The light rail station serves as a stop on the Red and Blue lines as well as the TRE. Union Station is the northern terminus of the Dallas Streetcar and provides access to the Greyhound bus terminal, the George Allen Courts Building, Dealey Plaza, the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion and Reunion Tower.

The first floor is occupied by an Amtrak ticketing window, a waiting room, and privately rented offices. The second floor contains the restored Grand Hall and several meeting rooms named after railroads that previously serviced Dallas. The second floor and a mezzanine are operated by Wolfgang Puck Catering.

History

The Union Terminal Company constructed the Dallas Union Terminal, as Union Station was originally called, in 1916 to consolidate five rail stations scattered around Dallas into one, making Dallas a major transportation center in the Southern United States. At the peak of its usage, as many as 80 trains stopped each day at the station. It was designed by Jarvis Hunt, who designed other large train stations. Railroads served by the station included Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ('Santa Fe'), St. Louis Southwestern Railway ('Cotton Belt'), Fort Worth & Denver Railway, Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad ('Rock Island'), Burlington-Rock Island Railroad, St. Louis and San Francisco Railway ('Frisco'), Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad ('Katy'), Southern Pacific Railroad and Texas & Pacific Railway.

In 1954, the building served as a temporary library while the Dallas Public Library system built a new central library to replace the original Carnegie Library.

Originally, the 2nd level waiting room was connected to train platforms via an overhead walkway, but this design was never popular with travelers as they needed to climb a large number of stairs. Escalators were added, but the Grand Hall was finally abandoned in favor of renovated ticketing and a waiting room on the ground floor (still in use today). Also, an underground corridor replaced the overhead walkway, with ramps at each platform. Despite Dallas' status as the second most populous city of the state at the time, the Dallas Union Station was eclipsed in some regard by Fort Worth Union Station. For example, the Rock Island Railroad's Twin Star Rocket from Minneapolis terminated at Fort Worth, not at Dallas. The Santa Fe Railroad's Texas Chief from Chicago also took its route through Fort Worth, en route to Houston.

The last passenger train to serve Union Station before the inauguration of Amtrak, the Missouri Pacific Railroad's Texas Eagle, left on May 31, 1969. When it began in the spring of 1971, Amtrak initially consolidated most of its Metroplex service at Fort Worth, but planned to introduce service to Dallas once improvements were made at Union Terminal, which it considered outdated. With those improvements, Amtrak service began on March 14, 1974, with the Inter-American between St. Louis and Laredo; the train evolved into today's Texas Eagle. From 1975 to 1981, the station was also served by the Lone Star, a descendant of an old Santa Fe mainstay, the Texas Chief.

DART's light-rail service began at the station on June 14, 1996. The station's upper-level waiting room was repurposed into meeting and convention space for the Hyatt Regency Dallas, which is connected via an underground walkway.

In October 2016, the Dallas City Council renamed the station to Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station in honor of U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson. In April 2019, DART approved the new name and held a dedication ceremony. It is mostly referred to as EBJ Union Station.

Murals

In 1934, as part of the federally sponsored Public Works of Art Project, Jerry Bywaters and Alexander Hogue were granted the first commission in Texas to create a series of 10 murals depicting events in Dallas history. They had painted them on the walls of the second-floor lobby at the old Dallas City Hall Building, located on Harwood Street between Main and Commerce Streets. In 1954, the original murals were destroyed when City Hall relocated. When the station was renovated to accommodate light rail usage, the murals were partially recreated by Phillip Lamb along the train platforms at Union Station.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Dallas County, Texas
• Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Dallas County
• List of Dallas Landmarks

External links

• Dallas, TX – Amtrak
• Dallas, TX – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• Union Station – Dallas Area Rapid Transit
• Union Station – Trinity Railway Express Archived 2022-10-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Union Station – Wolfgang Puck event venue
• Dallas Union Station Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, from Amtrak's Texas Eagle website
• Dallas Amtrak-DART-TRE Station (USA Rail Guide — Train Web)