Many times while traveling, your trip is made a bit longer and more difficult because you have to wait at a strange and distant airport, hotel, or new location.

Most of us, tired from our trips, still must wait for another ride, detour, or for a transfer to a new plane, train, or automobile; or even as basic as the need to just relax and let some time pass by to recharge our batteries, but only to compromise our self-dignity with discomfort, dismay, or even worse–at the very same surroundings that we’re subjected to during the diversion.

Union Station the Rolls Royce of Train Stations

Originally opened in May 1939, Union Station is now the central stop for Amtrak, along with three rail lines– the Red, Purple, and Gold, which will soon be opening an Eastward extension.

With about 400 train departures every 24 hours, thousands of people make their way through Union Station each day. Partially designed by the Parkinsons, Architecture Group, who also designed LA City Hall, Union Station passengers were greeted upon their arrival and departure via the gardens.

Also interesting to note, as Paisley commented on in Friday’s post, Los Angeles Historical Walks, Union Station has also been featured in several films and television programs; Blade Runner, Speed, Star Trek: First Contact, Pearl Harbor, The Italian Job, and the Fox television series 24.

Union Station “mixes two architectural styles, Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco. The floor plan is a cross, like in a cathedral. There is no echo inside the building – the walls are lined with cork.” Source: Union Station

Its interior and exterior make plentiful use of travertine marble on both walls and floors, along with the serious yet colorful and playful use of terra cotta.

Union Station’s grand rooms have an air of coolness and style. Although Union Station had heavy traffic during World War II, its ridership dwindled until 1993, when the Metro’s Red and Purple lines were introduced to the historic complex.

Union Station was designed to be a place of relaxation in an otherwise hectic travel environment, symbolizing our fast paced lives, and its inexorable and inextricable connection.

Inside its iconic and transformational “Waiting Room,” travelers find food, comfy chairs, and a path leading to Union Station’s first garden.

And the second garden on the other side

What Train and Metro depot is complete without a Koi pond?

Or small details like a bud vase hanging from a tree

After a little relaxation, it’s probably time to catch your next train so you won’t be late.

Next time you visit Los Angeles or when you take the Metro to Union Station, be sure to take a few minutes to relax and reflect in one of these beautiful spaces.

In this case, regardless of Travelin’ Local or afar, rest awaits you around the next bend.

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