The light rail revival of Union Station.

One of the classic buildings in downtown Denver is Union Station.  The beautiful 1914 vintage terminal was truly a railroad union, uniting a whole host of area railroads in a single central location, so that passengers could transfer between the various rail lines.  The station was the center location of Denver's downtown as well, and, like most downtown railroad stations, commerce and lodging based on the railroads grew up near it.  These included everything from the massive Denver Seed Company seed warehouse to hotels, such as the century old Oxford Hotel.

Union Station, as viewed from in front of the Oxford Hotel in Denver, photo from Railhead.

Union Station remains, but as everyone well knows, the days of transferring from one rail line to another are long gone in the American west.  About the only thing that runs on most western lines today is freight of one kind or another.  This station, however, has been a bit of a slight exception in that Amtrak still uses the terminal (or will again soon, it's under massive reconstruction as detailed below).  And the terminal is also the hub for Denver's downtown light rail and trolley system.

Like most cities where the decline of passenger rail has occurred, the impact on the downtown has been noticeable.  Denver went from a rail served town to an automobile served town long ago.  In the early 1980s, like most towns with a large oil section economy, the town went into an economic downward spiral when the oil economy of the region collapsed.  Denver has come back, however, and with it the downtown came back as well, boosted, indeed revived, by the construction of the classically styled Coors Field downtown, the home of the Rockies.  

After Coors Field was built, the dilapidated downtown revived, with old run down buildings re-purposed and rebuilt.  The whole area is hip, trendy and hopping today. And with the revival of the downtown, and interesting revival of downtown rail is about to happen.

Denver is putting in a light rail system that will run to the distant airport.  Traveling in Denver has always been a bit of a headache, and has become particularly so since Denver International Airport was built, as unlike Stapelton Field, it's way out from the center of the town.  That was necessary, but it also means that anyone flying into Denver has a long distance to travel by car to get downtown, if that's where they are headed.

Well, the year after next they'll have another option, light rail. And that light rail will take passengers right downtown, as passenger rail once did (and with Amtrak still does).  Union Station is being rebuilt (and is hence temporarily closed) and part of that reconstruction will be the addition of a hotel to it.  

Interesting how that has gone.  Hotels were once built as near to it as possible, to catch rail passengers.  Now that's being done again.

Related Posts:

Railhead:  Union Station, Denver Colorado.