The future of Portland's historic Union Station, now for sale

FOX 12 Now visits Portland Union Station and talk with Shawn Uhlman of Portland Prosper about the history of the building and the city’s desire to sell it. Uhlman gives more details about what the proposed $250-$300 million in renovations would cover and why it's such a high price.

[SAGUY]

What a beautiful building . Hope that the renovations can happen with sensitivity to its historic status .

[ttopero]

Fascinating to see how Portland did the exact OPPOSITE of Denver with its Union Station. We have renovated ours & paid off the bonds for its full renovation, including tracks, platform & subterranean bus depot, that were asked to allow the additional $500m they expect from the taxes to be used elsewhere downtown!

[SandraGoff-tc]

I hope the historic look will be kept. Many good memories of the excitement of train travel.

[paulnorberg]

As a former resident, who still loves to visit, by using that amazing location, I really hope that Portland rallies around one of the most significant pieces of infrastructure and cultural intersection and keeps the urban relevance that a grand city like Portland deserves.

[stevenkeller]

Because the general public does not have a true grasp on what public works projects cost, here is an example. In my city, we just finished installing three Quiet Zone rail crossings. This project made three consecutive rail and street crossings secure so trains do not need to blow their horn. The project installed two crossings with supplemental safety measures (SSMs) and other physical barriers to restrict pedestrians, bicyclists, and automobiles from entering the train tracks at the wrong time. A third street was closed altogether. Along with securing the crossings, some track work was done. This project area is half a mile (at most) and cost 11.5 million dollars. It's good to understand that by their nature, rail projects are very expensive.

[KathrynRose-schultz-qsqw]

Raise funds to keep the Train Station! It is a land mark for Portland!

[astropo]

Thanks for posting the long-form interview, this was great.

[XRanger]

My office was at the far left end of the second floor from 1983 to 1988. I used to take my kids, now in their 40's, up into the clock tower.

[CascadianFyn]

It's pretty sad how deteriorated the US rail system is, especially compared to so many other countries with high speed trains.

[diamondpeakproductions]

Sandra Bullock- a fan of restoration. Call her publicist!

[A]

My wife and I take Amtrak all the time, but will activity get on and off at the station in Vancouver because of how bad the City of Portland let the homeless problem around Union Station get. The last time we got off in Portland, we encountered an extremely aggressive panhandler who was yelling at us as soon as we walked out of the doors. You will not have the traveling public using Union Station if they do not feel safe.

[captiannemo]

Should only be restored with a minimum done to update it.

[vernongoodey]

Travelled from uk in May this year for a trip on the Empire Builder Seattle to Chicago. Had a few days in Seattle so took Amtrak to Portland to a wonderful station. Shame once outside the station took the Main Street into town and it was just a tented drug city!

[williamlloyd]

Unreinforced masonry brick! Short of placing the entire building on a seismically base isolated platform, don’t think there is a way to mitigate earthquake risk. Makes sense updating / replacing tracks and platforms but building itself is not in the cards.

[deanfirnatine]

Why isn't Amtrak responsible for the tracks? Aka the Feds

[cliffwoodbury]

This station should be prepping for high-speed rail not being sold for any other purpose.

[dyson]

One of the problems that I have experienced is the lack of car rental at rail transportation hubs. Even if car rental was available at Union Station it would still be a problem at other Amtrak locations.

[bennetfox]

Since UP owns the tracks, shouldn't they be responsible for any track repair costs?

[ivanoffw]

Glad that Amtrak did not make the purchase. If Amtrak was to purchase the station, it would only be a matter of time before they sold it because they are underfunded by Congress, and Portland would be left with an AmShack somewhere inconvenient.

[karenfrost]

Prosper Portland rep didn’t mention earthquake revocations.