Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza (Toledo)

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza

Station statistics

Address

415 Emerald Ave.
Toledo, OH 43602

Lines

Lake Shore Limited

Capitol Limited

Connections

Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach

Parking

Yes; free

Baggage check

Yes

Other information

Accessible

Code

TOL

Owned by

Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority

Traffic

Passengers (2007)

49,215 ▼ 13%

Services

Preceding station		Amtrak		Following station
Waterloo toward Chicago		Capitol Limited		Sandusky toward Washington
Bryan toward Chicago		Lake Shore Limited		Sandusky toward New York or Boston (South)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza is owned by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.

Up to 100,000 passengers pass through Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza each year, making it Ohio’s busiest passenger rail hub. In 1996, the Port Authority completed an $8.5 million renovation of the historic Central Union Terminal facility and it now serves as a modern, intermodal train and bus terminal and office complex.

Toledo, Ohio is served by four Amtrak trains daily to Chicago and several destinations to the east including Cleveland, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Boston, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York City.^[1]

1 History
2 The Amtrak era
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The Historic Central Union Terminal, Toledo, Ohio, opened with great fanfare the week of September 17, 1950, the $5,000,000 C.U.T. was the last of the New York Central Railroad's great stations. The new terminal was the crown jewel of a large post-war investment by the New York Central into Toledo, which involved constructing 9 new buildings, as well as moving and expanding (in conjunction with the B&O) an $18,500,000 coal loading facility from East Toledo to Maumee Bay. C.U.T. was used by 4 major railroads during the 1950s and 1960s: the New York Central, Baltimore and Ohio, Chesapeake and Ohio, and the Wabash Railroad. The first floor housed baggage services, while the second floor housed a YMCA for train crews. The passenger terminal and concourse were on the third floor, while the NYC Toledo division and dispatching offices were on the fourth.^[2]

[edit] The Amtrak era

In the Amtrak era, Toledo was served by as many as 6 trains daily in the late 1990s, the four above, as well as the now discontinued eastbound and westbound Pennsylvanian. Prior the discontinuation of mail services more recently, Amtrak stored a number of material handling cars (MHCs) at Union Station on several of the disused platform tracks. A small number of private cars are often stored on the platform tracks closest to the station. As of 2008, while the station appears in good shape, at least cosmetically, the concrete platforms are crumbling, particularly at the far ends. Freight trains still bypass the station platforms on bypass tracks on the north side of the station just as they did in the days of the NYC.