Jeramey Jannene
Eyes on Milwaukee

New $22 Million Rail Concourse Opens

Intermodal Station's dark and dingy concourse for boarding trains finally replaced.

By - Jun 22nd, 2016 05:18 pm

Intermodal Station's dark and dingy concourse for boarding trains finally replaced. Back to the full article.

Photos - Page 2

6 thoughts on “Eyes on Milwaukee: New $22 Million Rail Concourse Opens”

  1. MidnightSon says:

    I popped up from Chicago on the Hiawatha Friday afternoon and returned Sunday evening. The new shed was a noticeable difference and a welcome difference!
    nice to have something near by to pass the time. I mean, there’s Stone Creek Coffee Roaster down there, but….

  2. Sam says:

    A welcome difference from the shed before. Hiawatha is an excellent way to get to Chicago for a weekend without dealing with the headaches of driving.

    Union Station in Chicago could use some sprucing up of it’s platform now. Talk about apocalyptic.

  3. Andy says:

    It looks really great! Is there any alternative to taking the escalator to get across the tracks? Elevator or stairs?

  4. Bill Kissinger says:

    I pass through this station a couple of times a month and applaud the improvements, including an elevator to supplement the escalators and the overall bright and colorful design.

    I may be the only person in the world who feels this way, but it is too bad that the work completely obliterated the lovely concrete screen with offset porthole openings that used to be just SE of the main building and the extended platform to the West. Both were excellent examples of the mid 20th century architectural response to the adventure of travel. Kind of funky, maybe even a bit kitsch, they were nonetheless worthy of preservation.

    Such is the lot of much of mid-century design, too new to be thought of as “historic,” work from this period is often carelessly discarded without regard to design merit.

  5. Mark Weitenbeck says:

    Response to (3) Andy. There are both stairs and elevators besides the escalators.

  6. From the looks of the Urban Milwaukee photos, there’s much to be commended in the new train shed at Milwaukee’s Hauptbahnhof. Regrettably, for all the simple splendor something was forgotten about the very moment when travelers board and alight from trains. Namely, judging from the photos, not one platform was built at deck level, at the level of the decks within the Hiawatha-service cars. Because the station had to be designed to accommodate Canadian Pacific freight trains passing through the shed, there would have been a need for at least one low-level platform adjacent to two ‘freight friendly’ tracks, accommodating the wider clearances of freight trains (and the lower, entrance decks of Empire Builder passenger cars). But one platform, perhaps two, could have been designed such that no steps would have been required to alight from or board Hiawatha trains. Entering and leaving passenger trains without the necessity of steps is faster, safer, and requires no special provision for accommodating handicapped travelers. Alas, for all the money spent, Milwaukee’s main station continues to fall short, when it could have so easily risen to the occasion of travelers entering or leaving Milwaukee via railway service.

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