Union Station (Washington, DC)

Washington Union Station
Amtrak, MARC, and VRE railway station
Location	50 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington, DC United States
Coordinates	38°53′50″N 77°00′23″W / 38.89731°N 77.00626°W / 38.89731; -77.00626Coordinates: 38°53′50″N 77°00′23″W / 38.89731°N 77.00626°W / 38.89731; -77.00626
Owned by	Amtrak and USDOT. Union Station Redevelopment Corp. leased to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation
Operated by	Jones Lang LaSalle
Platforms	18
Tracks	22
Train operators	Amtrak, MARC, VRE
Bus stands	located on the mezzanine level
Bus operators	WMATA Metrobus DC Circulator Maryland MTA Commuter Bus Loudoun County Commuter Bus PRTC Buses BoltBus Greyhound Lines Megabus Peter Pan Bus Lines Washington Deluxe Best Bus
Connections	Washington Metro Red Line at Union Station, DC Streetcar
Construction
Parking	2,448
Bicycle facilities	180
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	Amtrak code: WAS IATA code: ZWU
Fare zone	1(VREX)
History
Opened	1908
Rebuilt	1981–1989
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	4,971,128 annually  1.1% (Amtrak)
Passengers (2016)	28,864 daily  7.45% (Metro)
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Terminus Acela Express BWI Airport toward Boston South Station Vermonter New Carrollton toward St. Albans Rockville toward Chicago Capitol Limited Terminus Alexandria toward Chicago Cardinal Baltimore toward New York City Alexandria toward Charlotte Carolinian Alexandria toward New Orleans Crescent Alexandria toward Miami Silver Meteor Silver Star Alexandria toward Norfolk, Newport News, or Lynchburg Northeast Regional New Carrollton toward Boston South Station or Springfield Alexandria toward Savannah Palmetto New Carrollton toward New York City MARC Silver Spring toward Martinsburg or Frederick Brunswick Line Terminus Terminus Camden Line Riverdale toward Camden Station Penn Line New Carrollton toward Perryville Virginia Railway Express L'Enfant toward Broad Run Manassas Line Terminus L'Enfant toward Spotsylvania Fredericksburg Line   Out-of-system interchange   DC Streetcar Terminus H Street/Benning Road Line 3rd Street toward Oklahoma Avenue   Former services   Baltimore and Ohio Silver Spring (Metropolitan Branch) toward Chicago Grand Central Station Main Line Hyattsville (Washington Branch) toward Baltimore Mount Royal Station Pennsylvania Railroad Terminus Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Landover toward Philadelphia Amtrak Alexandria toward Tri-State Station Hilltopper New Carrollton toward Boston South Station Silver Spring toward Cincinnati Shenandoah Terminus
Washington D.C. Union Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Built	1908
Architect	D.H. Burnham & Company (William Pierce Anderson, Daniel Burnham)
Architectural style	Classical, Beaux-Arts, among others
NRHP Reference #	69000302
Designated	March 24, 1969

Washington Union Station is a major train station, transportation hub, and leisure destination in Washington, D.C. Opened in 1907, it is Amtrak's headquarters and the railroad's second-busiest station with annual ridership of just under 5 million. The station also serves MARC and VRE commuter rail services, the Washington Metro, and buses.

At the height of its traffic, during World War II, as many as 200,000 people passed through in a single day. In 1988, a headhouse wing was added and the original station renovated for use as a shopping mall. Today, Union Station is one of the busiest rail facilities and shopping destinations in the country, and is visited by over 40 million people a year.

Before Union Station opened, each of the major railroads operated their own stations: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad trains arrived and departed from the New Jersey Avenue Station, while the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) (a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad), the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and the Southern Railway operated from the B&P's station at 6th and B Street, NW—the current location of the National Gallery of Art.

When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad announced in 1901 that they had agreed to build a new union station together, the city had two reasons to celebrate. The decision meant that both railroads would soon remove their trackwork and terminals from the National Mall. Though changes there appeared only gradually, the consolidation of the depots allowed the creation of the Mall as it appears today. Secondly, the plan to bring all the city's railroads under one roof promised that Washington would finally have a station both large enough to handle large crowds and impressive enough to befit the city's role as the federal capital. The station was to be designed under the guidance of Daniel Burnham, a famed Chicago architect and member of the U.S. Senate Park Commission, who in September 1901 wrote to the Commission's chairman, Sen. James McMillan, of the proposed project: "The station and its surroundings should be treated in a monumental manner, as they will become the vestibule of the city of Washington, and as they will be in close proximity to the Capitol itself."