WASHINGTON — A significant reduction in parking spaces — including elimination of above-ground parking and bus facilities — and a larger train hall are key features of a revised plan for redevelopment of Washington Union Station released Friday.
The Washington Post reports the revised plan from the Federal Railroad Administration — developed after a two-year delay to address complaints the previous plan were too car-centric — also will include below-ground pick-up and drop-off areas, better integrated access for pedestrians, bikes, and buses, and concourses lined with shops and restaurants.
The project is expected to cost $8.8 billion with completion by 2040. The full report, available here, details changes including the replacement of a 1,600-space, six-story parking garage with a single of underground parking with 400 to 550 spaces. It will include four new concourses, and larger east-west train hall than the original proposal. It would rebuild the existing tracks and platforms with 19 new tracks — 12 stub-end tracks on the facility’s west side and seven run-through tracks.
The new train hall would cover approximately 150,000 square feet, while the new concourses would cover about 330,000 square feet. There would be approximately 64,000 square feet of retail space.
The FRA will hold public hearings on the new plan on June 28 and 28, and accept comment through July 6. More information is available here.
Regarding the use of either ride share services like Uber or Lyft or even the city taxi or private automobile to the airport or the railroad station, there will always be a need for the auto to take one to the station. After all we can’t have a railroad track coming down the local street or an airplane taking off from a runway built next to a house or the local neighborhood. If you look back in history before the auto, people would pull up to the train station in either a horse and wagon or horse and buggy to catch the train. Some things never change and remain the same. On Long Island for example many towns have no public transit like a bus line serving the stations that the Long Island Railroad serves. So evetrybody drives to the station in their car and leave the car in the station parking lot until they return home on the evening train and then drive back to their homes. Whether we like it or not, the private automobile will always play an important role in transsportation and is just one more cog in the wheel that keeps the population moving forward to their destination.
Joseph C. Markfelder
OK, one should look at the number of passengers using Union Station during
WW2 and through the early 1960s. Do current numbers exceed those totals ?
2040——assume AMTRAK will be a short item in history books unless the folks
in Congress decided to create/fund a TRULY national system compared to the
UK, France, Germany, et al.
Bill Grant
Cols, OH
They better first get the crime and vagrancy issue under control before they do anything. Then they need to rethink the anti-car issue. People don’t want to ride a bike or take a bus to the station with all their luggage or even without luggage. Unless the garage never has more than 400 cars in it then they need to increase the number of spaces to at least the current number or people are going to drive to their destination or fly where there are plenty of spaces to park at the airport. I’ve always wondered why Amtrak maintains these monstrous dinosaurs of stations downtown when it would be cheaper and more convenient to terminate in the suburbs where there is plenty of space to park. A shuttle could be offered for those wanting to be downtown. But with the way that downtown businesses are moving to the suburbs again there will be few who want to go downtown.
How many times has Washington Union Station been redeveloped since Amtrak came in? I was especially impressed with the big hole in the floor in the 1976 edition.
By the way, where are the trains going to stop while the 19 new tracks are being built?
By 2040 Amtrak will have ceased being a national passenger rail system do they seriously think the rest of us are going to pay for this crap!
Please check the 8.8 million dollar cost. That is unreasonably low for such a big project– which would be wonderful if true.
More likely 8.8 billion which was about the cost of the replacement Hudson river tunnels back in the early 2000s. Granted there has been signficant inflation but still amazing that the cost of rebuilding a building is the same as a complicated underwater tunnel– though WUS also has some tunnels and the drawings show a vastly different boarding concourse. Last time I was in WUS, the floor level looked quite worn.
You are correct: it should be $8.8 billion and the story has been updated.
Two questions: How frequently does the current garage see more than 400 cars parked? Why will a new concourse attract retail back when it left the existing retail areas in the station because of crime and vagrancy?
Eliminating parking spaces is a bad idea. It will not bode well with passengers going to points north on 1 or 2 day business trips (or pleasure trips) who drive in from the Virginia or Maryland suburbs and board early morning trains. This group of travelers does not want to ride Metro or Uber to Union Station.
If it works in DeeCee, that’s fine, but let’s not pretend that Amtrak eliminates driving to the train. I have to wonder what percentage of Amtrak trips begin, end or both with a trip by automobile. Which includes taxi and Uber/Lyft, which have the same environmental impact (while on the road) as a private car (albeit not needing a parking deck).
NEC is different in that all the cities have public transit. Let’s look at where I live – Wisconsin – and the train I take, the Hiawatha. MKE station (downtown Milwaukee) has a big parking lot. MKA (General Mitchell International Airport) is a giant south-suburban park-ride. Sturtevant is a park-ride. That’s all three Wisconsin stations.
Even when I take the bus to Amtrak it’s almost always by driving to the suburban park-ride where the bus picks me up. Once or twice Ive walked the two miles to the bus stop but usually not.
Ditto many Amtrak stops — Route 128 (Massachusetts), Dearborn (Michigan) are essentially big parking lots or parking decks.
I have more of an issue with them eliminating bus space than car space to be honest.
The redevelopment of Denver Union Station around 10 years ago or so made little or no consideration for automobiles. There is no designated Amtrak parking, and the nearby commercial lots and garages are very expensive. While I am in favor of transit-oriented development, the concept can be taken too far. In Denver, you can take commuter rail or light rail to Union Station (depending on where you are coming from), but the light rail stop is a hefty walk from the commuter rail/Amtrak terminal at the actual Union Station building. Prior to the redevelopment, the light rail station was much closer and more convenient.
JEFFREY — Closer to home than Denver is Chicago. Of the downtown terminals, Ogilvie and LaSalle are served by the Chicago El, but Union Station, Millennium and Van Buren are not.