Kankakee station

Kankakee, IL
General information
Location	199 South East Avenue Kankakee, Illinois United States
Owned by	City of Kankakee
Line(s)	CN Chicago Subdivision
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
Connections	River Valley Metro SHOW Bus (dial-a-ride)
Other information
Status	Regular stop (Illini/Saluki) Flag stop (City of New Orleans)
Station code	Amtrak: KKI
History
Opened	1898 (1898)
Passengers
FY 2023	13,944 (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Champaign–Urbana toward New Orleans City of New Orleans Homewood toward Chicago Gilman toward Carbondale Illini and Saluki
Former services Preceding station Illinois Central Railroad Following station Otto toward New Orleans Main Line Bradley toward Chicago
Illinois Central Railroad Depot
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Kankakee, Illinois, USA
Coordinates	41°7′9.48″N 87°51′56.16″W
Built	1898
NRHP reference No.	00000409
Added to NRHP	April 28, 2000

Kankakee station is an Amtrak intercity train station in Kankakee, Illinois, United States. The station is a regular stop for the Illini and Saluki, and is a flag stop for the City of New Orleans, served only when passengers have tickets to and from the station. The present station was built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1897.

History

The Illinois Central Railroad Company was founded in 1851. By 1853, newly founded Kankakee was connected Chicago, 56 miles (90 km) away. The first train pulled into the station on July 11, 1853. The rail connection reduced the travel time between the two cities from six days by wagon to three hours by rail. It also provided Kankakee with access to industrial resources in the north–south direction; the city was no longer dependent on the east–west Kankakee River. Kankakee was incorporated two years later.

The original station was a small, wood-framed station. However, by the 1890s, it had fallen into disrepair and no longer conformed to city ordinances. The Illinois Central agreed to commission a new train station in 1897, which was completed the next year. The first train arrived at the new station at 7:30 a.m. on January 10, 1898. Frank Lloyd Wright traveled through the station on several occasions while designing two houses in Kankakee, remarking of the new building, "not a style of my choosing but good enough for the community." The city was also served by the New York Central Railroad at another station, with trains such as the James Whitcomb Riley, bound for Cincinnati.

Telephones were installed in 1902, replacing the original telegraph wires. These lines were moved underground in 1911. Rail use declined in the 1930s, coinciding with the Great Depression and the increased use of automobiles. Furthermore, the Kankakee Electric Railway Company, which provided interurban service to the station, went out of business in 1933. The station saw a resurgence in the 1940s during World War II, when personnel training at Chanute Field in Rantoul would come to Kankakee on leisure time. The station has remained in continuous use since 1898.

Historical services

Historically, the station served trains on the Illinois Central's routes going southwest, south and southeast. The last of these, aside from the City of New Orleans, Illini and Saluki was the South Wind.

to St. Louis:

• Green Diamond

to New Orleans:

• City of New Orleans
• Panama Limited

to Florida:

• Seminole
• South Wind

Disposition today

The station has been on the National Register of Historic Places since the year 2000. By the late 1980s, the depot had fallen into disrepair. The city purchased the building from the Illinois Central in 1990 and finished a full restoration eight years later. The $1 million project was funded with $750,000 in city funds and private donations. Today, the northern end of the station is home of the Kankakee Railroad Museum.

In popular culture

In Steve Goodman's song "City of New Orleans" (popularized by Arlo Guthrie) the train departs the Kankakee station.

Bus Connections

River Valley Metro: – Routes 1, 7, & 8

External links

Media related to Kankakee station at Wikimedia Commons

• Kankakee, IL – Amtrak
• Kankakee, IL – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• Kankakee Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide -- Train Web)