One of these days, Amtrak just may move back into the "old" terminal that is supposedly under redevelopment to a shopping complex.
 

As for Union Station, the restoration is magnificent, both on the inside and outside.
On the inside, the marble floor, ornate ceiling paintings, and chandeliers have all been restored. A number of restaurants are located within Union Station, mostly off the main waiting room. Photos of the front of Union Station with downtown Kansas City in the background are easily obtained through a short walk up the hill to the south of Union Station (toward the Liberty Memorial). Having been in KCUS during the early Amtrak years and during the "Ambubble" period, I've never seen the station look better than it does now. It's an easy walk from the current station and definitely worth the time.

I've traveled on the SWC a number of times, most recently in November 1999. The service has been consistently good, though timekeeping has taken a bit of hit in the past few years with the increase in express traffic.
 

1) The Amtrak station currently uses Tracks 30 and 31 of the old KC Union Station ladder. Tracks 28 and 29 stub under the North Waiting room; as I write, the Kansas City Southern executive train sits on track 28.

2) Amtrak has space allocated to it in Union Station. Don't know when the waiting room and the ticket office will transition up from the trackside box into the building. It's supposed to happen this year (2002).

3) Union Station complex is part of what has redeveloped into the Liberty Memorial, Persing Square, and Crown Center complex.

If you place Union Station in the lower right hand corner of a grid system:

- Liberty Memorial, which is the only monument in the Nation to World War I, is to the North.

- Pershing Square is to the east ... it is a pocket park, with office buildings and Pershing Road surrounding it. (Note) The office Building One Pershing Square occupies the ladder tracks east of the North Waiting Room.

- Crown Center, which is the Hallmark Cards corporate headquarters complex, including shops and hotels, is to the Northwest, in the Signboard Hill area.

As an aside, a redeveloper bought the old Kansas City Terminal Railroad roundhouse and is redeveloping it. At this writing, the turntable is still in place, and there are some plans for a museum in the future.

Both trains stop between Lawrence and Argentine Yard for and extended freight service halt. This halt is where Amtrak works the mail and express.

Hope all this helps.

John

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The City of Saint Louis (UP, 1967) is still my standard for passenger operations
 

But, like Willie Sutton once said: "that's where the money is".