Amtrak Great Stations

New Orleans

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New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal

german he New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal (NOUPT) opened on January 8, 1954 to consolidate passenger rail operations from the city’s other railroad’s stations and reduce the number of dangerous grade crossings throughout the central city. When it was built between 1947 and 1954, NOUPT was an ultra-modern facility with a stone facing. It was originally built at a cost of $2,225,000 and replaced the city’s five scattered passenger depots. At the time, this 53,600 square-foot structure was the only air-conditioned station in the country and served 44 passenger trains and seven railroads (although a partner, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio terminated passenger service to New Orleans just prior to the opening of NOUPT). Although the terminal was owned by the city, it was built and paid for by the railroads themselves.

This stub-end terminal consists of a modern waiting hall and covered platforms; its freight and express houses are now the domain of the New Orleans Arena and main post office. The NOUPT waiting hall contains the famous 2,166 square-foot fresco murals painted by Conrad Albrizio, a renowned professor of art at Louisiana State University, assisted by James Fisher. The murals depict the history of Louisiana in four panels representing the ages of exploration, colonization, conflict and the modern age. These murals were recently restored by the New Orleans Building Corporation, a public benefit corporation charged with managing and developing city properties.

Great American Stations

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from TRAINS
/ Sep 1954 / collection

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from TRAINS
/ 1954 / collection

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New Orleans

  • name:New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal
  • station code:NOL
  • location:1001 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans
  • owner:City of New Orleans
  • operators:Amtrak, Greyhound Lines, Megabus, RTA
  • platforms:4 islands
  • tracks:6 terminal tracks
  • opened:1954, replaced 5 separate stations
  • style:Ultramodern
  • architects:Wogan and Bernard, Jules K. de la Vergne, and August Perez and Associates
  • rebuilt:2005 renovation
  • notes:
  • major southern terminus for Amtrak operations, including coach and engine yard near terminal
  • routes:
  • City of New Orleans | Crescent | Sunset Limited
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RWH

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1974 Amtrak timetable map / collection

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promotional postcard / collection

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all ticket items above from JCH travels / May 1967 / collection

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See also our complete New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal scrapbook in Mainlines

Terminal Building

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trains_banner1954 The news in New Orleans is that [the other] stations are silent; some have even been demolished. Today all trains serve the newest downtown railroad terminal in the nation, a handsome 16-million-dollar plant with a functional-looking facade of limestone. It's a stationmaster's dream, wholly air conditioned and fitted with all the extras from a cocktail lounge to rubber-tired baggage trucks. But New Orleans' new Union Passenger Terminal is much more than an interesting architectural specimen in stone and imported marble, more than even a convenient, comfortable place to change trains. It is tangible proof of the civic good that came about when city and railroads set forth years ago to solve headaches common to both. Taking tracks out of downtown was the key issue because 144 grade crossings were not only choking the flow of street traffic but constituted a continuing threat to life, limb, and sometimes, locomotive. This, then, is the station built to eliminate grade crossings—one of the many jobs it does very well.

TRAINS magazine - Sep 1954

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postcard / collection

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Click to see the Union Passenger Terminal area plotted on a Google Maps page

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New Orleans Union Station was the only train station architect Louis Sullivan designed. It was constructed in the architect’s well-known ‘Chicago School’ style and decorated with his iconic ornament. Adler and Sullivan’s head draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright was involved in the final work under Sullivan’s supervision. Union Station was a three story hip-roofed structure with a cupola, including office and waiting areas, with a broad portico with central columns and arched entryways at each end of the entrance. Union Station and the other stations were demolished in 1954 and replaced by the current New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.

NOUPT was built next to the old 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. In the late 1960s, tracks 7-12 were shortened to half tracks in order to accommodate Greyhound Lines in the terminal, sharing the terminal with the remaining passenger trains and later, Amtrak. This helped to create an intermodal facility.

Great American Stations

tag_closeup Terminal Front Façade

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façade

fa·cade \ fə-ˈsäd \

variants: or less commonly façade

Definition of facade: the front of a building
also: any face of a building given special architectural treatment
a museum's east facade

Merriam-Webster

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rta_logo In January 2013, NOUPT 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.

Great American Stations

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Click to see the NOUPT streetcar stop plotted on a Google Maps page

all photos above: New Orleans, La / Nov 2019 / RWH

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New Orleans Streetcar Line Opens

January 2013

The Loyola Avenue-Union Passenger Terminal Streetcar Line in New Orleans, La., is now open. The new line extends transit service to the French Quarter, the Superdome and downtown jobs and is already attracting new business and residential development to the area.

“We are committed to helping New Orleans modernize its historic streetcar line, which has become an important catalyst for revitalizing the downtown business and tourist districts,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The Loyola Avenue Streetcar line has four new stations and travels through the city’s business district, which includes energy, government, healthcare and financial sector offices and jobs. The line connects directly with Amtrak and intercity bus service at the Union Passenger Terminal, as well as streetcar service on Canal Street.

The U.S. Department of Transportation provided $45 million in Fiscal Year 2010 toward the streetcar project through its Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program. The remainder was funded by local sources.

Jennifer Nunez - Railway Track & Structures

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See also our complete New Orleans Streetcar system scrapbook in Streetcars

Terminal Interior

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albrizio_inset This stub-end terminal consists of a modern waiting hall and covered platforms; its freight and express houses are now the domain of the New Orleans Arena and main post office. The NOUPT waiting hall contains the famous 2,166 square-foot fresco murals painted by Conrad Albrizio, a renowned professor of art at Louisiana State University, assisted by James Fisher. The murals depict the history of Louisiana in four panels representing the ages of exploration, colonization, conflict and the modern age. These murals were recently restored by the New Orleans Building Corporation (NOBC), a public benefit corporation charged with managing and developing city properties.

Great American Stations

albrizio1 albrizio2 albrizio3 albrizio4 albrizio5 albrizio6 albrizio7 albrizio8 albrizio9 albrizio10

Nov 2019 / RWH

Schedules

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Crescent

collection

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City of New Orleans

collection

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Sunset Limited

collection

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See also these related Amtrak route scrapbooks:

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Links / Sources

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This page was updated on 2024-08-31