Peoria Union Station
Peoria Union Station was a passenger rail hub for north-central Illinois, in Peoria, Illinois. Built in the Second Empire architecture style, it was located on Depot Street, between State and Oak Streets, near the Illinois River. At its peak, it had seven tracks operating. However, even by World War II, it was only a junction point for regional lines that seldom extended beyond the state of Illinois. This station, the Rock Island Depot and the Illinois Terminal reached their peak volume of trains in 1920 with 110 trains running in and out daily.
Tenant railroads in the middle of the 20th Century included the Burlington Route, the New York Central Railroad and New York, Chicago & St. Louis.
The Alton Railroad, Chicago & Illinois Midland, Chicago & North Western, Illinois Central Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad and Toledo, Peoria & Western used the station until the 1930s.
More significant long distance train routes went through Galesburg, Illinois to the northwest and Bloomington, Illinois to the southeast, and the station had an early decline. The station was last used in 1955, and was destroyed by fire 1961. The last Nickel Plate train from the station was a local train to Frankfort, Indiana in 1951. In 1955 Burlington shifted its trains to a separate station northeast of Union Station until it discontinued Peoria trains in 1960. New York Central in 1955 moved its Peorian trains out of Union Station to nearby Pekin, and with the shift, renamed the train, Corn Belt Special, until ending passenger service in 1957.
