Peoria Union Station

Peoria Union Station
Postcard of Union Station in Peoria, Illinois, sometime between 1907-1915
General information
Location	Depot Street, Peoria, Illinois United States
Coordinates	40°41′04″N 89°35′39″W / 40.684523°N 89.594214°W / 40.684523; -89.594214
History
Opened	1882 (1882)
Closed	1961 (1961)
Former services
Preceding station Alton Railroad Following station Terminus Dwight – Peoria Washington toward Dwight Pekin toward Sherman Sherman – Peoria Terminus Preceding station Chicago and North Western Railway Following station South Pekin toward Benld Benld – Nelson Limestone toward Nelson Preceding station Burlington Route Following station Pottstown toward Galesburg Galesburg – Peoria Terminus Preceding station Illinois Central Railroad Following station Terminus Peoria – Evansville Pekin toward Evansville Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station Terminus Peoria & Eastern Railway Pekin toward Indianapolis Preceding station Nickel Plate Road Following station Terminus Peoria – Fostoria Crandall toward Fostoria Preceding station Pennsylvania Railroad Following station Farmdale toward Terre Haute Terre Haute – Peoria Terminus

Peoria Union Station was a passenger rail hub for north-central Illinois, in Peoria, Illinois. Built in the Second Empire architecture style, it was located on Depot Street, between State and Oak Streets, near the Illinois River.^[1] At its peak, it had seven tracks operating. However, even by World War II, it was only a junction point for regional lines that seldom extended beyond the state of Illinois.^[2] This station, the Rock Island Depot and the Illinois Terminal (for an interurban line) reached their peak volume of trains in 1920 with 110 trains running in and out daily.^[3]

Tenant railroads in the middle of the 20th Century included the Burlington Route, the New York Central Railroad (the legacy routes of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the 'Big Four') and New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate Road).^[4]

The Alton Railroad, Chicago & Illinois Midland, Chicago & North Western, Illinois Central Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad and Toledo, Peoria & Western used the station until the 1930s.^[2][5] Into the latter 1940s the Burlington Route's motor coach trains ran from the station to Galesburg, Illinois.^[6] The Nickel Plate ran a train to Lima, Ohio via Bloomington, Illinois, Lafayette, Indiana and Frankfort, Indiana.^[7]

More significant long-distance train routes bypassed Peoria and went through Galesburg, Illinois to the northwest and Bloomington, Illinois to the southeast, and the station had an early decline. The station was last used in 1955, and was destroyed by fire 1961.^[1] The last Nickel Plate train from the station was a local train to Frankfort in 1951. In 1955 Burlington shifted its trains to a separate station northeast of Union Station until it discontinued Peoria trains in 1960.^[2] New York Central in 1955 moved its Peorian (Peoria-Bloomington-Champaign-Urbana-Danville-Indianapolis) trains out of Union Station to nearby Pekin, and with the shift, renamed the train, Corn Belt Special,^[8][9] until ending passenger service in 1957.^[2]