Visiting soon, questions about transportation to Union Station (Chicago, Washington: hotel, transfer to)

[DianeO90]

We are coming to Chicago in June and will be staying at the Marriott O'hare and I need to know what L train to take and where to get off for Union Station. We won't have a car but will be taking the train out of Chicago and not sure if Union Station is near any of the sites we want to see like the Sears Tower and the Wendella boat cruise. Can you please tell me where these sites are and if they are close to Union Station? Thanks!

[Chicago60614]

It sounds like you're trying to come in from the O'hare area, see a few sites do downtown and then leave from Union Station?

If you want to take the train as close as possible to Union Station from O'hare, you'd just take the Blue Line from Cumberland (you can easily walk here from your hotel) and get off at Clinton. That's going to put you maybe 5 minutes walking to Union Station.

If you're going to explore downtown and do things, you might as well get off at Washington and you can look around State Street, Michigan Ave, Wendella, and then walk through the Loop to Union Station. It's going to be a decent amount of walking - but it's all within the Loop area.

I'd just pull up Google Maps and look at the loop. Wendella is at Michigan right north of the river, the Sears Tower is on Adams and Wacker, and Union station is right across the river along the river and Adams. Blue Line stop is near Dearborn and Washington if you want to explore the loop, or the Clinton stop is on Clinton right south of Union Station.

[aragx6]

Google maps has a great built-in transit function. Put in your starting and ending address, choose the little train icon and it'll tell you how to get there with public transit.

[CoolSocks]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

It sounds like you're trying to come in from the O'hare area, see a few sites do downtown and then leave from Union Station

I think the OP is getting here by Amtrak, so she'll be coming out of Union Station and her hotel is the Marriott O'hare.

OP- I'm not sure about how to get to that area from Union Station (I'm sure some people will be able to help you with that) but depending on the time you get there, I would suggest you go to your hotel first to drop off your stuff because you probably won't want to do all the tourist stuff (boat tour, tower, etc) dragging your luggage around.

[Mr Downtown]

Skydeck Chicago (at the top of Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower) is just across the river from Union Station. Amtrak has lockers for passengers to leave luggage at the station.

Wendella's Chicago Water Taxi will take you from Madison Street Dock (two blocks north of Union Station) to the main Wendella dock where you can buy tickets on a river or lake cruise. The competing company Shoreline Water Taxi has a "Union Station" dock that's even closer, across the river near Willis Tower. Same deal as Wendella, you just take a $2 ride to their main dock out by Navy Pier.

[SJaye]

Union Station is quite close to the Sears Tower (now the Wilis Tower). The Wendilla Boat Cruise is a little bit farther away. To get to the Wilis Tower from the Marriot O'Hare you would take the blue line to Jackson and walk a little bit West. From there, you are just a couple of blocks from Union Station.

[Mr Downtown]

Union Station is six blocks west of the Blue Line Jackson station, but only two blocks north of the Blue Line Clinton station. However, from Jackson station you can easily transfer to a westbound bus on Adams that will take you to the door of Union Station, while there are fewer buses on Clinton.

[chicagojlo]

Clinton is one way southbound over there so you'd probably have to walk two blocks just to get to a bus.

[DianeO90]

Okay I guess I should have been more clear. We are coming into O'hare and staying at the Marriott O'hare hotel for one night. The next day we will be leaving on Amtrak. For the one day we are there, we would like to see Sears Tower and then go on the Wendella. We are only traveling with backpacks as we don't do any luggage when we travel. We travel light, haha. Anyways, if we go to our hotel and drop off our backpacks and then go touring what stop do we get off to go on the Wendella and visit Sears Tower and the next day what stop do we get off to get to Union Station? That is what I need to find out. I'm so nervous to come to a big city as we live in a rural area and have to drive 5 miles just to get to a bus stop so this all makes me very nervous and worry about safety too. Thanks for any help

[OrangeAndBlue]

Well, you would have multiple options about which stops to get off at, depending on if you're going to Wendella or the Sears Tower first. Really though, all locations you are talking about are within about a mile of each other so it's easy to walk once you get off the train at any of the blue line stations in the Loop, especially if you're packing light.

Anyway, you'd take the blue line El from O'Hare. The closest station to Wendella is Clark & Lake. From there it's about a half mile walk to Wendella at Michigan Ave and the River. The closest blue line station to the Sears Tower is Jackson, from where you'd also have to walk about half a mile to get to the Sears tower. To get from Wendella to the Sears Tower (or vice versa) directly, taking the El doesn't really make sense. You can either walk (about a mile) or just take a cab. Union Station is very close to the Sears Tower. To get there, you can take either the Jackson blue line El stop again and walk about 6 blocks or take the Clinton stop and walk about 2-3 blocks as some of the posters above have said already.