24. Amtrak
By 1971 nearly all of America’s remaining passenger railroads were teetering on the brink of total collapse. Years of declining passenger revenue led to the once-grand trains becoming seedy in appearance, with declines in passenger schedules and services. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, operating under the name Amtrak, formed to take over most intercity passenger rail services in the United States. The only station served by Amtrak in Chicago, Union Station, became a critical hub for Amtrak. It is the fourth busiest of all of Amtrak’s stations in terms of passenger traffic, after New York’s Grand Central, Penn Station, and Jamaica Station.
At the end of the 20th century, Union Station serviced about 140,000 passengers per day, though only about 10,000 were from intercity rail. The rest were commuters using Chicago’s Metro trains. Fifteen Amtrak trains servicing destinations to the north, south, east, and west use the station, making it one of the most crucial hubs for the entire American passenger rail system in the 21st century. Chicago Union Station is the fourth busiest train station in the United States, and remains an important link in plans to develop high-speed rail corridors in the interior of the United States during the 21st century. In 2017, Amtrak trains carried 30.7 million passengers, a record for the system auguring well for its future.