Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Commonly abbreviated as CUT, or by its Amtrak station code, CIN, the terminal is served by Amtrak's Cardinal line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building's largest tenant is the Cincinnati Museum Center, comprising the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, and an Omnimax theater.
Union Terminal's distinctive architecture, interior design, and history have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Art Deco design incorporates several contemporaneous works of art, including two of the Winold Reiss industrial murals, a set of sixteen mosaic murals depicting Cincinnati industry commissioned for the terminal in 1931. The main space in the facility, the Rotunda, has two enormous mosaic murals designed by Reiss. Taxi and bus driveways leading to and from the Rotunda are now used as museum space. The now-demolished train concourse held all 16 of Reiss's industrial murals, along with other art and design features.
The Cincinnati Union Terminal Company was created in 1927, to build a union station to replace five local stations used by seven railroads. Construction, which lasted from 1928 to 1933, included the creation of viaducts, mail and express buildings, and utility structures: a power plant, water treatment facility, and roundhouse. Six of the railroads terminated at the station, which they jointly owned, while the Baltimore and Ohio operated through services.
Initially underused, the terminal saw traffic grow through World War II, then decline over the following four decades. Several attractions were mounted over the years to supplement declining revenues. Train services ended in 1972, and Amtrak moved service to a smaller station nearby. The terminal was largely dormant from 1972 to 1980. During that time, its platforms and train concourse were demolished. In 1980, the Land of Oz shopping mall was constructed inside the station, which operated until 1985. In the late 1980s, two Cincinnati museums merged and renovated the terminal, which reopened in 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center. Amtrak returned to the terminal in 1991, and it resumed its role as an intercity train station. A two-year, $228 million renovation was completed in 2018.
Services
The station is served by Amtrak's Cardinal line, operating every other day, three times per week. The service runs between Chicago and New York City; trains to Chicago arrive at 1:31 a.m. and trains to New York arrive at 3:17 a.m., each departing 10 minutes later.
Likely as a result of the extreme late-night schedule, ridership is among the lowest of Amtrak stations in Ohio and among the lowest for any station serving a metropolitan area of at least two million people. Union Terminal saw 11,862 boardings and alightings in 2016, 11,144 in 2017, 8,315 in 2018, 8,641 in 2019, 5,451 in 2020 and 7,164 in 2021. Ohio's total ridership for 2019 was 132,000 people.
The terminal is connected to Route 49 of Metro, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's bus system, which also connects to downtown Cincinnati, North Fairmount, and English Woods. The last bus of the night arrives at the terminal at 12:40 a.m., and the first bus in the morning arrives at 4:55 a.m.
Former services
The terminal opened with service from seven railroads: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway; Louisville and Nashville Railroad; Norfolk and Western Railway; Pennsylvania Railroad; and the Southern Railway.
Amtrak maintained two services there until moving to the Cincinnati River Road station in 1972, where they remained until returning to Union Terminal in 1991. Named trains that have stopped at Union TerminalNameOperatorsYear begunYear discontinuedNotesReferencesAzaleanL & N19371953BuckeyePRR19571969CardinalAmtrak1991Active serviceCarolina SpecialSOU19111968Inaugural service to CUTCavalierN & W19281966Inaugural service to CUTCincinnati LimitedPRR, PC19201971Inaugural service to CUTCincinnati MercuryNYC19511957September 1951 New York Central timetable, Table 23October 1957 New York Central timetable, Table 23CincinnatianB & O19471971Fast Flying VirginianC & O18891968Inaugural service to CUTFlamingoL & N19251968Inaugural service to CUTFlorida SunbeamSOU19361949George WashingtonC & O, Amtrak19321972Inaugural service to CUTGreat Lakes LimitedB & O19291950Inaugural service to CUTHumming BirdL & N19471968James Whitcomb RileyNYC, PC, Amtrak19411972Metropolitan SpecialB & O19191971Inaugural service to CUTMichigan SpecialNYC19301958Inaugural service to CUTNational LimitedB & O19161971Inaugural service to CUTNight ExpressB & O19601967 Northern ArrowPRR19351961Ohio State LimitedNYC, PC19241967Inaugural service to CUTPan-AmericanL & N19211971Inaugural service to CUTPocahontasN & W19261971Inaugural service to CUTPonce de LeonSOU19241968Inaugural service to CUTPowhatan ArrowN & W19461969Royal PalmSOU1970Inaugural service to CUTSouth WindL & N19401971SouthlandL & N, PRR19151957Inaugural service to CUTSportsmanC & O19301968Inaugural service to CUTUnionPRR19331971White City SpecialCCC&StLInaugural service to CUTXplorerNYC19561957
Operations
The facility, grounds, and parking lot are owned by the City of Cincinnati, while the tracks and platforms are owned by the freight railroad company CSX Transportation. The city leases the building primarily for use by Amtrak and the Cincinnati Museum Center, a collection of five entities: Cincinnati History Museum Museum of Natural History & Science Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater Cincinnati History Library and Archives Duke Energy Children's Museum
The terminal also houses the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, several foodservice operations, and event space.
Visitor services
All areas of the museum center are wheelchair-accessible. The Amtrak station is also accessible and ADA compliant. The main information desk is used for ticketing, and has daily schedules, museum maps, and coat checking, and has information on special events and the building's lost and found items. The Museum of Natural History operates two gift shops: one adjacent to the rotunda and a children's gift shop in the museum wing. The History Library operates a separate shop adjacent to the rotunda.
There are three dining rooms on the main concourse, two on the lower level, a retail shop, and other rotating operations. The main level operation Cup and Pint serves pizzas, coffee, and draft beer, while Nourish 513 serves sandwiches, salads, and fast food. The Rookwood tea room is operating as a Graeter's ice cream location.
In 2014, the museum center and the Google Cultural Institute created a virtual tour of the museum using Google Street View, with about 65 works of art and their descriptive labels viewable.
Terminal complex attributes Architects and Art Deco design The station building was designed by the firm Fellheimer & Wagner, and is considered to be the magnum opus of the firm. Fellheimer was known for designing train stations, and he was lead architect for Grand Central Terminal (1903–1913). The large and busy firm gave the project design to Roland A. Wank, a younger employee.
Wank's original plan was traditional and featured Gothic architecture: large arches, vaulted ceilings, and conventional benches in long rows. In 1930, during initial construction, the terminal company persuaded the architects to hire Paul Philippe Cret as a design consultant. In 1931–32, Cret altered the design aesthetic: thereafter, the terminal and its supporting buildings used modern architecture (later known as Art Deco), even in places not visible or open to the public. The revised designs were approved as cheaper than the intricate Gothic designs, and with more cheerful, stimulating, and colorful interiors than previous designs.
Location, layout, and exterior
Cincinnati Union Terminal is located in the Queensgate neighborhood, created in the mid-20th century; originally it was part of the West End. The location is north of the Ohio River and west of downtown Cincinnati. The terminal lies directly east of the Gest Street rail yard, and directly west of an expansive lawn and parking lot, formerly Lincoln Park. The terminal lies at the western end of Ezzard Park Drive (named Lincoln Park Drive from 1935 to 1976, after the park, and subsequently named for Cincinnati resident Ezzard Charles). The eastern end of Ezzard Park Drive abuts Cincinnati Music Hall, another icon of Cincinnati, visible from the terminal's front terrace. The complex's northern boundary is Kenner Street, its southern is Hopkins Street, its western is the Gest Street rail yard, and its eastern boundary is Western Avenue (formerly Freeman Avenue).
The terminal complex opened in 1933 with 22 buildings, , and of track. 130 acres were occupied by the terminal and its surrounding grounds, while 157 acres were occupied by supporting railroad facilities. The station building in total has .
The building has a roughly T-shaped structure surmounted by its half-dome. It was built with five floors, but only two primary levels: the track level, and the station floor, placed above the tracks for simplicity of arrangement and for more architectural opportunities. The building lies east of the tracks, facing Downtown Cincinnati. The building is aligned on a central axis: the east lawn, the terrace, the main concourse, the checking lobby, and finally the train concourse built over the tracks, leading to the station's platforms. The station was considered to have a "pull-through" design, less common though more efficient than the "head-house" style. Another example of a pull-through station is Kansas City Union Station, while Grand Central Terminal is a head-house-style terminal. Carroll Meeks, a professor of architecture and art history at Yale University, compared its layout to a half funnel laid out on the ground, with the wide end collecting passengers and the narrow end ejecting them out onto the platforms.
Cincinnati Union Terminal had a capacity of 216 trains per day, 108 in and 108 out, carrying 17,000 passengers. Three concentric lanes of traffic were included in the design of the building, carrying traffic through enclosed ramps to a space beneath the main rotunda of the building, with ramps again for departure. One lane was for cars and taxis, one for buses, and one (never used) for streetcars. Similar to Buffalo Central Terminal, Union Terminal used a system of ramps for passengers to access the platforms below the concourse.
The building's architecture and design received general acclaim though, even in 1933, it was seen as being possibly the last grand intercity train station to be built. Carroll Meeks described the passenger's route from the tracks to the concourse and back down again to vehicle ramps as relatively complicated and arduous.
Grounds east of the terminal
The space to the east of the station consists of a terrace and fountain to the west and parking lots around a narrow lawn to the east.
The terminal lawn originally measured , and gently carries broad driveways upward to the terminal. The lawn was originally Lincoln Park, a lush city park. It was remodeled during the terminal's construction to have simpler decorative landscaping, though it retained the name of Lincoln Park. The revised landscaping included elm and sycamore tree borders, with flower beds in the central strip. The central strip is still intact, but the portions to its north and south became parking lots in 1980.