Union Station

Kansas City Union Station opened in 1914 to serve the entire metropolitan area. Union Station served a peak annual traffic of more than 670,000 passengers in 1945 at the end of World War II, quickly declined in the 1950s, and was closed in 1985. In 1996, a public-private partnership undertook Union Station's $250 million restoration, funded in part by a sales tax levied in both Kansas and Missouri counties in the Kansas City metropolitan area. By 1999, the station reopened as a series of museums and other public attractions.