New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal

Union Passenger Terminal
Location 1001 Loyola Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70113
United States
Coordinates 29°56′46″N 90°04′43″W / 29.94611°N 90.07861°W / 29.94611; -90.07861Coordinates: 29°56′46″N 90°04′43″W / 29.94611°N 90.07861°W / 29.94611; -90.07861
Owned by City of New Orleans
Platforms 4 island platforms
Tracks 6 (formerly 9+)
Train operators Amtrak
Bus stands 16
Bus operators Greyhound Lines, Megabus
Connections Loyola-UPT Streetcar Line
RTA buses
Construction
Parking 180 long term spaces
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Station code Amtrak code: NOL
History
Opened 1954
Rebuilt 2005 Renovation
Traffic
Passengers (2013) 212,426[1] Decrease 4.7%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station
TerminusCity of New Orleans
toward Chicago
Crescent
toward Los Angeles
Sunset LimitedTerminus
Sunset Limited
service suspended
toward Orlando
Location
Union Passenger Terminal
Location within Louisiana

New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal (NOUPT) is an intermodal facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Located at 1001 Loyola Avenue, it is served by Amtrak, Greyhound Lines, Megabus, and NORTA with direct connections to the Loyola Ave. Streetcar line.

The station is the major Southern terminus hub for Amtrak, with three trains (Sunset Limited, City of New Orleans, and Crescent) serving the city. Amtrak also operates a coach and engine yard near the terminal. The Sunset Limited used to extend all the way Orlando, Florida, but when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 the Sunset limited has been terminus in New Orleans because the tracks between New Orleans and Mobile were washed out, CSX, which owns the tracks, repaired the tracks in 2006 and the Sunset Limited did not return east of New Orleans to Orlando, However, in 2016 Amtrak said that the Sunset Limited has been proposed to return to Orlando, Florida in the near future.

History

The New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal was created to consolidate passenger rail operations from the city's other railroad stations, and was constructed just west of the older New Orleans Union Station. Parts of the station property also are over what once was the turning basin for the New Basin Canal. The main lead track to the terminal follows the path of the old canal (which was filled in) and the Pontchartrain Expressway/I-10.

NOUPT was designed in 1949 by the New Orleans architectural firms of Wogan and Bernard, Jules K. de la Vergne, and August Perez and Associates. When it opened in 1954, it was considered an ultramodern facility, completed just at the time that air travel was taking off at the expense of rail travel.[2]

The stub-end terminal consists of covered platforms and a modern waiting hall. A 120-foot (37 m) long mural of Louisiana and New Orleans history, painted by Conrad A. Albrizio with the assistance of James Fisher,[3] was restored after 2005's Hurricane Katrina. The freight and express houses are now the domain of the New Orleans Arena and Main Post Office.

In the 1970s, parts of two platforms were shortened to allow for Greyhound Lines to build an intercity bus terminal, sharing the terminal with Amtrak and creating an intermodal facility.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Amtrak provided the first commercial transportation out of New Orleans. During the recovery efforts, NOUPT was briefly used as a jail.

In January 2013, the station became the terminus for the new mile-long Loyola Avenue-Union Passenger Terminal Streetcar Line connecting Canal Street with the Central Business District and destinations such as the Superdome. The $52 million project was largely funded through a $45 million Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant awarded to the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority by the U.S. Department of Transportation.[4]

Megabus started operations at the Union Passenger Terminal in 2015.

References

  1. ↑ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2013, State of Louisiana" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  2. ↑
    • "Centralization in the Crescent City". Classic Trains Magazine (Winter 2010). Kalmbach. 11 (4). 2010.
  3. ↑ [http://nutrias.org/exhibits/choochoo/page4.htm>] Crescent City Choo Choo exhibit
  4. ↑ Great American Stations (NOL). Accessed April 13, 2013.

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