(credit: CBS)
Reporting Steve Murphy
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — A daylong celebration is planned Saturday for the reopening of St Paul’s Union Depot.
It cost $243 million to restore the majestic rail station to its former grandeur, and Commissioner Jim McDonough of the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority said it’s more than just a transit hub.
“It’s exactly what [railroad baron] James J. Hill built that building for back in the twenties,” said McDonough.
NewsRadio 830 WCCO’s Steve Murphy Reports
“He needed an intermodal transit hub for passenger rail service but he understood that that building was more than just a transportation hub, that it was St Paul’s living room — a place where people came to share experiences and celebrate.”
Even as speeches and festivities are taking place on Saturday, scores of Metro Transit busses will be arriving and departing.
Jefferson Lines and Amtrak will begin using the Union Depot early next year and the Central Corridor light rail line will start serving the depot in 2014.
