WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is taking administration of Union Station away from Amtrak within the newest instance of the federal authorities exerting its energy over the nation’s capital.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy introduced the takeover Wednesday alongside Amtrak President Roger Harris at Washington’s foremost transportation hub in the course of the launch of an up to date model of the rail service’s Acela practice. The federal authorities owns Union Station, which is close to the Capitol.
Duffy stated the station has “fallen into disrepair” when it must be a “level of pleasure” for the District of Columbia. He stated the Republican administration’s transfer would assist beautify the landmark in a cheap manner and was consistent with Trump’s imaginative and prescient.
“He desires Union Station to be lovely once more. He desires transit to be protected once more. And he desires our nation’s capital to be nice once more. And at this time is a part of that,” Duffy stated.
It’s Trump’s newest try and put the town below his management. In current weeks, Trump has elevated the variety of federal legislation enforcement and immigration brokers on metropolis streets whereas additionally taking up the Metropolitan Police Division and activating 1000’s of Nationwide Guard members. Final week, Trump stated he desires $2 billion from Congress to beautify Washington.
Duffy stated the federal authorities can do a greater job managing the practice station and appeal to extra outlets and eating places and generate extra income that shall be used to pay for upgrades to the station, which opened in 1907. Since then, the cavernous Roman-columned constructing has been by a number of administration modifications and quite a few ups and downs concerning its cleanliness, security and state of restore.
Mayor Muriel Bowser stated upgrading the transit hub that serves varied rail strains and buses can be an “wonderful initiative” for the federal authorities to tackle as a result of the town can’t afford the fee.
“It has suffered from not with the ability to get the cash that it wants for the renovation,” the Democrat stated at a separate information convention.
Nationwide Guard troops have patrolled in and round Union Station ever since Trump introduced the anti-crime effort this month. Vice President JD Vance and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth had been shouted down by opponents of the federal intervention when they visited with troops there final week.
Duffy had pressed Amtrak about crime on the station in a March letter to its chief working officer and requested an up to date plan on the way it meant to enhance public security there.
The deputy transportation secretary, Steve Bradbury, cited a brand new roof and new public restrooms amongst $170 million in upgrades that he stated are wanted on the station.
Amtrak’s new high-speed practice, the NextGen Acela, will begin serving the Northeast Hall on Thursday, stated Harris, Amtrak’s president. The trains can journey at speeds of as much as 160 mph, about 10 mph quicker than the Acela practice it’s changing. Duffy and the officers from the Union Station occasion boarded one of many new trains afterward for an inaugural journey to New York’s Penn Station.
Union Station has had a historical past of ups and downs throughout its practically 120-year historical past.
In 1981, after rain began pouring by the ceiling, the Nationwide Park Service, which has jurisdiction over a number of the space surrounding the station, declared the constructing unsafe. The station was closed for 5 years for renovation and President Ronald Reagan signed the Union Station Redevelopment Act to assist fund and manage its comeback.
Extra not too long ago, the constructing fell on comparatively laborious instances in the course of the COVID pandemic. Foot visitors plummeted after passengers shunned mass transit whereas a number of outlets closed on the station. However the previous three years have witnessed a little bit of a comeback.
The station has sometimes been a magnet for homeless people searching for shelter inside or tenting in tents on Columbus Circle in entrance of the constructing. The proliferation of tents prompted the Park Service to clear the encampment in entrance of the station in June 2022.
Management and administration of the bodily constructing even have shifted through the years.
