BY SANDRA GUY Staff Reporter September 10, 2014 10:32AM

Updated: September 10, 2014 1:06PM

A Chicago transportation official outlined plans Wednesday to improve Union Station by widening commuter platforms, providing CTA buses off-street parking and potentially use old underground tunnels to open up space that could eventually lead to direct-to-airport rail routes.

Even more imaginative are ideas for the Great Hall aerobics, yoga or tether ball, anyone?

The Metropolitan Planning Council invited people to submit ideas, and the winners included reinventing the Great Hall by putting down artificial turf and installing a hammock, space for tether ball and an area for yoga and aerobics classes.

The Planning Council wants to turn Union Station into a destination, rather than just a place where people pass through.

Another idea would be to use the Canal Street viaduct area for a steakhouse, and to open shops and restaurants in the station so people would want to stroll around or have business lunches there, a planning council spokeswoman said.

As for transit improvements, Jeffrey Sriver, director of transportation planning and programming for the Chicago Department of Transportation, told a public hearing at the station of these plans:

Installing enhanced bus lanes and larger bus stations starting up Canal Street and going east on Washington, then west on Madison and south on Clinton.

Creating a surface parking lot just south of the station for CTA buses the city is now in the process of buying the property to give more space to cars, cabs and pedestrians moving in and out.

Read this article:
Major changes discussed to expand, renew Union Station