Washington’s Metro and the District of Columbia Department of Transportation are working to improve safety, capacity and accessibility at Union Station.
The station is a major transportation hub in the Washington area that connects Metrorail and Metrobus passengers with Amtrak, MARC and VRE railway services, as well as other transportation modes.
Union Station is the busiest station in the Metrorail system with 68,000 passengers entering and exiting daily, including 18,000 passengers transferring between Metrorail and Amtrak, MARC and VRE services.
“The safety and capacity improvements are necessary to improve station conditions for today’s customers,” said Metro Board Member Tom Downs.
“Going forward, these improvements will also be critical to accommodating the significant growth that is expected over the next 20 years.”
Proposed improvements include:
- Improved evacuation capacity in the event of emergency at Union Station.
- Significant safety improvements on all three levels, in particular the Metrorail platform.
- Significant capacity expansion on all three levels of the north mezzanine, platform and concourse.
- Direct link to new development, streetcar and intercity bus terminal.
- Improved access to commuter rail, Amtrak and retail at Union Station.
- Annual travel time savings from reduced congestion at the north mezzanine.
The refurbishments are set to cost $2.55m using grants from the District of Columbia’s Federal Transit Administration.
The full Board is expected to vote on the Union Station access and capacity improvements at its April 28 meeting.
