Duffy said the station has “fallen into disrepair” when it should be a “point of pride” for the District of Columbia. He said the Republican administration’s move would help beautify the landmark in an economical way and was in line with Trump’s vision.
“He wants Union Station to be beautiful again. He wants transit to be safe again. And he wants our nation’s capital to be great again. And today is part of that,” Duffy said.
Duffy said the federal government can do a better job managing the train station and attract more shops and restaurants and generate more revenue that will be used to pay for upgrades to the station, which opened in 1907. Since then, the cavernous Roman-columned building has been through multiple management changes and numerous ups and downs regarding its cleanliness, safety and state of repair.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said upgrading the transit hub that serves various rail lines and buses would be an “amazing initiative” for the federal government to take on because the city cannot afford the cost.
“It has suffered from not being able to get the money that it needs for the renovation,” the Democrat said at a separate news conference.
Duffy had pressed Amtrak about crime at the station in a March letter to its chief operating officer and requested an updated plan on how it intended to improve public safety there.
The deputy transportation secretary, Steve Bradbury, cited a new roof and new public restrooms among $170 million in upgrades that he said are needed at the station.
Amtrak’s new high-speed train, the NextGen Acela, will start serving the Northeast Corridor on Thursday, said Harris, Amtrak’s president. The trains can travel at speeds of up to 160 mph, about 10 mph faster than the Acela train it is replacing. Duffy and the officials from the Union Station event boarded one of the new trains afterward for an inaugural ride to New York’s Penn Station.
Union Station has had a history of ups and downs during its nearly 120-year history.
More recently, the building fell on relatively hard times during the COVID pandemic. Foot traffic plummeted after passengers shunned mass transit while multiple shops closed at the station. But the past three years have witnessed a bit of a comeback.
The station has occasionally been a magnet for homeless individuals seeking shelter inside or camping in tents on Columbus Circle in front of the building. The proliferation of tents prompted the Park Service to clear the encampment in front of the station in June 2022.
Control and management of the physical building also have shifted over the years.
