Los Angeles Union Station

 

the ticket concourse with separate counters for Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific

 

 

 

The station opened in May 1939, one of a number of union stations in the United States, and consolidated facilities of its predecessors La Grande Station and Central Station. With LA being the second largest metropolitan area in the US, it was built on a suitably grand scale and became known as "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the US.  It combines both Art Deco and Spanish Mission styles, although the latter dominate.

For a long time its name was Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal or LAUPT, but the name was more recently changed back to Los Angeles Union Station. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Since February 2011 it has been owned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and with the underground metro lines as well as the surface lines is just as much a hub of rail passenger services now as it ever has been.