I was reminicising about my visit to Buffalo Central Terminal and I started thinking of the great railroad stations in the US which are currently unused/abandoned/facing uncertainty. The really big ones, the icons...

Buffalo, Michigan Central (Detroit) and Albany all come to mind (and all are ex NYC).

Are there others of similar scale?

Reading Terminal, Philadelphia

The CNJ terminal in Jersey City could be put to better use...

Now hold on a minute.

Are we talking "not used by TRAINS"? Or utterly, completely abandoned and disused?

Reading Terminal in Philly is a convention center. Albany, NY (technically a Union Station, shared with D&H) is commercially occupied.

I think Albany is now vacant, the regional bank that rehabbed it having been merged/bought and gone a few years ago.

I was thinking of the criterion being no current use at all - lets define that as not used by a business, govt entity or non-profit other than select tours or infrequent events - thus Albany would make the list, while Jersey City/Communipaw would not.

Oakland would make the list, too, I suppose.

We can't say "zero use", as then many including MCS and BCT would both be off the list due to tours and/or TV/film production.

Any view which treats Michigan Central Depot as "in use" I would say is a faulty one.

Agreed, though hopefully the MCSPS will change that.

It was used as the site for the drift event last month, but only as a backdrop apparently.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I am still only thinking of:

BCT, Buffalo
MCS, Detroit
AUS, Albany
16th St, Oakland

Any other big empty ones?

The first three have people trying to do something with them, but I have heard of no plans for 16th Street.

Rob

If we're talking not in use by trains, but still used for other things, we have to include Jacksonville, Florida's Union Station.

I also recall that one of the two big stations in Seattle is in rail use, but the other is not. Which is which?

King Street Station is in use by Amtrak and the Sounder.

Union Station, across the street, is in use as a venue space and maybe other uses.

Phoenix's Union Station stands just to the South of Downtown, not having seen a regular passenger train since 1996. Though not "abandoned", the station is used as storage and a "junction box" of sorts for the old Sprint network.

There is 16th street station in Oakland, Ca. It was damaged in the 1989 earth quake and never used again. Mainline trains at ground level, interurban trains up stairs. Some still hope it can be repaired and reused, but it will take a lot of money. During the earth quake the steel structure starting rocking back and forth breaking out the stone work at both ends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OaklandSPdepot.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oakla ... on2007.JPG

I can think of 3, tho not big terminals.

Gary Union Station, which is derelict now, but a rehab could make it useful for business stuff.

South Bend Union Station, its intact, used for business attractions etc.

Fort Wayne station, its been without passenger service since the Amtrak takeover, it might return. Passengers must run up to Waterloo.

St. Louis Union Station, of course. Not only without train service for a long time, but the mall that was built there is moribund as well.

The hotel in the St. Louis head house is still open, correct?