John
Union Stations, as with many other stations, were often jointly owned by
multiple railroads, usually through a separate corporation that controlled both
the terminal and, sometimes, railroad operations within.
An interesting Union Station owned by one railroad was the Union Station in Fort
Worth, owned by the Santa Fe, and also known as Santa Fe Station. It is the
current Amtrak station in that city, although no longer owned by the Santa Fe
(actually BNSF now), but rather a private party.
sjl
John N Shankland wrote:
> > You've raised an interesting question. Union Stations occurred
> > when two or
> > more railroads joined together with a common station. There were
> > (and still
> > are) depots that are joint facilities of two or more railroads
> > which aren't
> > referred to as Union Stations. Quite often (perhaps always)
> > Union Stations
> > were operated by a jointly-owned subsidiary corporation, whereas joint
> > agencies didn't have a separate corporate existence.
>
> Interesting that they all picked the same name, or that it was allowed. The
> ??/?? railroads were allowed to name their place Union Station in Cincinnati
> for example. You would think that who ever had the name first would have
> objected to the next guys naming theirs the same. It made me think that
> maybe there was a Union Station Company that was involved. Found the land,
> built the building, sold, leased, whatever to a group of railroads.
>
> Seems peculiar also that ( or at least by todays practices) that the RR's
> consented to a station name that didn't include their names. Could it be
> that they rented space or paid fees like the Airlines do? O'Hare is owned
> by the City of Chicago, hence no United Airlines in the name.
>
> John S
>
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