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Today, Amtrak announced it will launch a $40 million project to improve Chicago’s Union Station and enable the facility to relieve overcrowding and handle additional passengers.

The project calls for installing air conditioning in the Great Hall, adding new restrooms, and doubling the seating in general passenger lounges. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2012.

Union Station serves as the hub for the Midwest high-speed rail network. Once high-speed service is launched in the region, thousands more visitors will be using the facility.

“Having those updates made by the time the first high-speed trains come rolling through town will serve Illinoisans well,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in a prepared statement.

Amtrak will expand seating in the north and south boarding lounges for coach and business class passengers from the current 450 to 950. The railroad also will relocate the Metropolitan Lounge — used by long-distance train passengers — to an area between the Concourse and Great Hall and increase seating from about 150 to 200. And by 2011’s end, Amtrak will move its regional office from leased space south of the station into parts of two lower floors of the station’s Headhouse.

In addition, Amtrak is moving forward with plans to redevelop Union Station’s Headhouse. The railroad has contracted Jones Lang LaSalle to conduct a feasibility study to determine the best plan for the facility.