Amtrak wins takeover of Washington Union Station

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west point

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Bostontoallpoints said:
Union Station after 7pm is like the movie "Night of the Living Dead". The zombies freely roam about the station.
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The hours before my first Amtrak ride ever were interesting. It was about 5 weeks after 9/11/01 and my cousin dropped me off at a Metro station in Virginia since he had a gun with him. I don't remember exactly when I got to Union Station but i do remember walking down to the open air Mc Donalds for something to eat before they closed. I watched several mice eating french fries that had been dropped on the floor. I curled up in a chair with my luggage to wait for my 3AM train to New York Penn.
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I've been in Union station a couple of times since then but never after 7PM. I even remember seeing George Will in the station once.
 
jis said:
The takeover closes this Monday.

The following article may require subscription:

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2024/07/26/amtrak-union-station-eminent-domain.html
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Great news. A crummy company had control of the place.

Bostontoallpoints said:
Union Station after 7pm is like the movie "Night of the Living Dead". The zombies freely roam about the station.
Click to expand...
Not discounting anyone else's experience, but as an occasional user of WAS since the late 1970s, when you had to walk around the remnants of the Bicentennial pit, I've never been approached aggressively there. Fort Lauderdale, 2023, that was another matter. (For those that don't know, D.C. was known for its large homeless population "sleeping on grates" in the late 1970s, compared to surrounding jurisdictions, due to a difference in commitment laws. Some of it was myth but plenty was reality.)

As far as 7pm goes, I don't know about early evening hours. I drove to WAS and parked in the garage November 2021, at 3:30am. I went through the station and took a walk towards the Library of Congress. When I came back an hour later, they were checking tickets at the main entrance. No zombies present inside.

The story of WAS may be filtered for many by the fact that it was a surprisingly popular mall and movie theater twenty years ago, after decades of lull. Like many such places, it no longer is, so that gets wrapped up into an exaggerated story of decline. The main thing it is in normal hours is busy. Train stations should be safe environments., agreed.
 
Hope this is the end but still a little skeptical. Was reading the WAS station plans for construction. What became a surprise was that sub basement work is needed for the supports of the tracks above. The reading seemed to say that the supports cannot support heavier weights.
Another item was that the rehab of the first street tunnel bores will include extending the OCS (CAT) into the tunnel with possibility of going all the way to the other end. Don't get your hopes up completion is year 2040.

https://www.railwayage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Amtrak-2021-Corridor-Vision-May27_2021.pdf
 
I found another article that I think has enough detail on Amtrak's plans for short-term improvements to DC Union Station. I think Amtrak is right to believe that a lot of that vanished retail will never come back. They're not taking all the vacant retail space, but I think the space they are taking is definitely needed to help passenger flow. That's its best use now and will be going forward.
 
JamesWhitcombRiley said:
The story of WAS may be filtered for many by the fact that it was a surprisingly popular mall and movie theater twenty years ago, after decades of lull. Like many such places, it no longer is, so that gets wrapped up into an exaggerated story of decline. The main thing it is in normal hours is busy. Train stations should be safe environments., agreed.
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Ah, a mall. I'd always wondered what the upper levels of the station had been.

The building looked to me like the original was the facade that we see from Columbus Circle. And behind was a 2 level add-on (above ground). And there's those restaurants on the 2nd floor that overlook the original main hall.

Thanks for sharing the history about the mall and theater.

I walked around the older sections during a layover and read the sculpted inscriptions. It's some interesting text to read ...

1722680661438.png
 
vap0rtranz said:
Ah, a mall. I'd always wondered what the upper levels of the station had been.

The building looked to me like the original was the facade that we see from Columbus Circle. And behind was a 2 level add-on (above ground). And there's those restaurants on the 2nd floor that overlook the original main hall.
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The basement had most of the mall, such as the movie theater. The big drug store is still on that level, as are the intriguing old portal gates behind the fast food counters. Apparently there's a service corridor running transverse back there, but the portals once provided access from below to the main level platforms?

The upper level, above the main level, has two basic restaurants, as well as the some of the same semi-high-end retail as the main level, where such retail, with not many customers, blocks the congested queues to the Virginia trains. Those queues go to the annex concourse over the lower level tracks. That concourse has enough space once you get there, but is decidedly not historic, just flat walls and no shops or seating.

The retail shops do not entirely block the Virginia queues, since there is room between them, but there you have to wait politely until the line gets shorter. Amtrak could either take down some shops and use the main hall for queuing, or open up the unknown (to me) floors on the east end of the main hall.

The upper level is spread out around an open atrium, and designed in a sort of gaudy 1980s vibe, but overhead and to the north are beautiful elements of the historic station. You can see close up the backs of the famous guardian statues that look out over the main hall.

I finally read the Washington Post article, and between the lines it's just down to paying the former leaseholder now, between $250m and $750m. Work can proceed, as long as it doesn't cost much. The stakeholders for the station mentioned are Amtrak, MARC, VRE and Union Station Redevelopment. Not mentioned is the Commission of Fine Arts, usually cited as "powerful."
 
FAQ, should you go into the station during the engine change on the lower level platforms at Washington Union?

Cons:
  • The food places and drug store are far away. There is no newsstand.
  • The coffee shop on the main level has lines.
  • The bathrooms the main level are small.
  • The conductors say not to, or to know you're on your own. Do not hang on the side of the train if you miss it, the train has been known not to stop.
  • You can walk around the platform and look at the trains and Metro and the engine change.
  • You can wonder why there's a public building to the east with access to the tracks. It's always mentioned in the planning documents as off-limits for consideration for station use, so it probably once was considered. Above you is some air space Amtrak sold off a few decades ago for cash. Ahead of you are some railroad artifacts, and the H Street bridge, where the trolley starts.
Pros:
  • The main hall is impressive, and not far away. This is the only reason to go into the station.
  • Though there appears to be a long line to get back to the platform, somehow I was able to bypass it the one time I went into the station, looking for a fat newspaper to read. It was only five years ago, so there was no chance of that. (Unlike Baltimore.)
  • There is a flower shop on the main level. Cheer up!
 
It appears that Amtrak has been doing some much need work that the old lease holder would not allow to be done. One item that I know of is the switch replacement work for the 1st street tunnel bores. There have been many delays there the past few weeks. In the past read that there was much needed overhead work above those tracks that was also being prevented. that overhead work may have been tied into the turnout work in some way.

Amtrak cancelled most regionals to Richmond and Roanoke this past weekend. Suspect that It appears that overhead work was done then. However, someone in the know needs to verify what work was done.
 
Speaking of “overhead”…it’s been a long time since I rode a train from or to the South from Washington.
I know there’s no longer a use for them, but does the old catenary still extend to Potomac Yard (if even that still exists)?🤔
 

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