Washington Union Station, known locally as Union Station, is a major train station, transportation hub, and leisure destination in Washington, D.C. Designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907, it is Amtrak's second-busiest station and North America's 13th-busiest railroad station. The station is the southern terminus of the Northeast Corridor, an electrified rail line extending north through major cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, and the busiest passenger rail line in the nation. In 2015, it served just under five million passengers.
An intermodal facility, Union Station also serves MARC and VRE commuter rail services, the Washington Metro, intercity bus lines, and local Metrobus buses. It carries the IATA airport code of ZWU.
At the height of its traffic, during World War II, as many as 200,000 passengers passed through the station in a single day. In 1988, a headhouse wing was added and the original station renovated for use as a shopping mall. As of 2014, Union Station was one of the busiest rail facilities and shopping destinations in the United States, visited by over 40 million people a year. The COVID-19 pandemic and other factors caused a sharp decline in retail and dining; by late 2022, more than half its commercial space was vacant. Amtrak took control of the station in 2024 and is working on a major renovation and expansion. On August 27, 2025, the Trump administration announced it would negotiate to resume direct federal management of non-railroad areas.
Contents
History
Pre-Union Station terminals
Before Union Station opened, each of the major railroads operated out of one of two stations:
New Jersey Avenue Station (1851–1907): Baltimore and Ohio Railroad trains arrived and left from this railroad station. It was located at the corner of New Jersey Avenue NW and C Street NW.
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station (1872–1907): Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P), a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and the Southern Railway all left from this train station. It was located at the corner of B Street NW, now Constitution Avenue, and 6th Street NW.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line ran east on D Street NE across North Capitol Street, then north on Delaware Avenue NE. It divided into two lines. The Metropolitan branch continued north on 1st Street NE, turning east on New York Ave NE and continuing north through Eckington. The other line turned east onto I Street NE up to 7th Street NE where it headed back north on what is today West Virginia Avenue running next to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (now Gallaudet University).
20th century
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."
After two years of complicated and sometimes contentious negotiations, Congress passed S. 4825 (58th-1st session) entitled "An Act to provide a union railroad station in the District of Columbia" which was signed into law by 26th President Theodore Roosevelt on February 28, 1903. The Act authorized the Washington Terminal Company (which was to be jointly owned by the B&O and the PRR-controlled Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad) to construct a station "monumental in character" that would cost at least $4 million (equivalent to $117 million in 2024). (The main station building's actual cost eventually exceeded $5.9 million [equivalent to $173 million in 2024].) Including additional outlays for new terminal grades, approaches, bridges, viaducts, coach and freight yards, tunnels, shops, support buildings and other infrastructure, the total cost to the Terminal Company for all the improvements associated with Union Station exceeded $16 million (equivalent to $468 million in 2024). This cost was financed by $12 million (equivalent to $351 million in 2024) in first mortgage bonds as well as advances by the owners which were repaid by stock and cash.
Each carrier also received $1.5 million (equivalent to $43.9 million in 2024) in government funding to compensate them for the costs of eliminating grade crossings in the city. The only railroad station in the nation specifically authorized by the U.S. Congress, the building was primarily designed by William Pierce Anderson of the Chicago architectural firm of D.H. Burnham & Company.
21st century
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation acquired Union Station Mall in late January 2007 for $160 million from Union Station Venture II.
In July 2012, Amtrak announced a four-phase, $7 billion plan to revamp and renovate the station over 15 to 20 years. The proposed conversion would "double the number of trains and triple the number of passengers in gleaming, glass-encased halls". Then-Amtrak President and CEO Joseph H. Boardman hoped the federal government would finance "50 to 80 percent" of the project.
In June 2015, the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation released a Historic Preservation Plan to guide preservation and restoration at the station complex.
The cinema closed in 2009, B. Smith's restaurant and Barnes & Noble in 2013, and the latter's replacement, H&M, in 2019.
Amtrak moved its headquarters offices from Union Station to a nearby building in 2017. That same year, the Trump administration listed an $8.7 billion expansion and refurbishment of Washington Union Station as an infrastructure funding priority. In the early 2020s, the station saw a further decline in the number of restaurants and stores as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A once-thriving terminal is now filled with vacant storefronts," the Washington Post reported in 2022. "Union Station had as many as 100 stores more than two decades ago. It’s down to about 40 retailers and eateries while more than half its commercial space sits vacant." The station continued to wrestle with issues stemming from people experiencing homelessness camped around the station and relying on its waiting and restroom facilities.
In April 2022, Amtrak began condemnation proceedings to take over the leasehold interest, saying that "poor maintenance and lack of capital investment" had "plagued" the station for years. Ashkenazy handed the mall to its lender, Rexmark, through foreclosure. In the meantime, the agency described plans for a major renovation and expansion, which seek to triple passenger capacity and double train capacity by modernizing and expanding station facilities over 20 years. The "Second Century Plan" accommodates Burnham Place, a planned transit-oriented, three million square-foot mixed-use development over the existing rail yard, that will connect the station complex to the burgeoning neighborhoods of NoMa and the H Street Corridor. The plan cleared a regulatory obstacle in March 2024, when the Federal Railroad Administration completed its final environmental impact statement.
Architecture
Architect Daniel H. Burnham, assisted by Pierce Anderson, was inspired by a number of architectural styles. Classical elements included the Arch of Constantine (exterior and main façade) and the great vaulted spaces of the Baths of Diocletian (interior); prominent siting at the intersection of two of Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's avenues, with an orientation that faced the United States Capitol just five blocks away; a massive scale, including a façade stretching more than 600 feet (180 m) and a waiting room ceiling 96 feet (29 m) above the floor; stone inscriptions and allegorical sculpture in the Beaux-Arts style; expensive materials such as marble, gold leaf and white granite from a previously unused quarry.
In the Attic block, above the main cornice of the central block, stand six colossal statues (modeled on the Dacian prisoners of the Arch of Constantine) designed by Louis St. Gaudens. These are entitled "The Progress of Railroading" and their iconography expresses the confident enthusiasm of the American Renaissance movement:
Prometheus (for Fire)
Thales (for Electricity)
Themis (for Freedom)
Apollo (for Imagination)
Ceres (for Agriculture)
Archimedes (for Mechanics)
The substitution of Agriculture for Commerce in a railroad station iconography vividly conveys the power of a specifically American lobbying bloc.
St. Gaudens also created the 46 centurion statues for the station's main hall, one for each state in the Union at the time the station opened. Also referred to as Legionnaires, they are made of plaster and modelled after ancient Roman soldiers, symbolically guarding over all who travel through the halls of Union Station. Each of the statues' large shields were added shortly after their installation, following complaints regarding the centurions' nudity from the hips down.
Services
Trains
Union Station is served by Amtrak's high-speed Acela Express, Northeast Regional, and several of Amtrak's long-distance trains (including, among others, the Floridian, Crescent, and Silver Meteor trains). From Union Station, Amtrak also operates long-distance services to the Southeast and Midwest, to destinations such as Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Miami. In 2024, an average of more than 70,000 passengers passed through the station each day. It is also the busiest station that can handle Superliner railcars; inadequate tunnel clearances in Baltimore and New York preclude the use of Superliners on most Eastern routes.
The station is the terminus for commuter railways that link Washington to Maryland and West Virginia (MARC) and Northern Virginia (Virginia Railway Express).
The station's tracks are split between a ground level and a lower level. The ground level contains tracks 7–20 (tracks 1–6 no longer exist), which are served by high-level bay platforms at the door level of most trains. These tracks are used by all MARC commuter rail services, all Amtrak Acela Express trains, and Amtrak Northeast Regional trains that terminate at the station. All of the tracks on this level terminate at the station and are only used by trains arriving from and departing to the north.
The lower level contains tracks 22–29, which are served by low-level platforms at the track level. These platforms are served by all VRE trains, all Amtrak long-distance trains, and Amtrak Northeast Regional trains that continue south to Virginia. Unlike the tracks on the upper level, the lower level tracks run through under the station building and Capitol Hill via the First Street tunnel. Electrification ends at the station, and all trains continuing south through the tunnel must have their electric engines swapped out for diesel-electric locomotives. For example, when a southbound Northeast Regional train arrives on a lower-level platform on its way to Newport News, Virginia, its Siemens ACS-64 electric engine is removed and set aside. A GE Genesis diesel engine that was earlier removed from a northbound train is coupled to the front of the southbound, and it continues through the tunnel toward Virginia. The ACS-64 is readied for a Northeast Regional arriving from Alexandria, and once coupled pulls the train toward Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York or Boston.
Transit
A nearby Washington Metro station connects to the Red Line. The Metrorail station is underground beneath the western side of the building. Entrances are inside Union Station with direct access from the high-level MARC and Amtrak platforms, from the east side of First Street NE, or from just outside the station at Massachusetts Avenue NE, providing access to the main concourse.
The DC Streetcar's H Street/Benning Road Line served the station from a stop on the H Street Bridge (a.k.a. the "Hopscotch Bridge") directly north of the station. The stop was accessible via the station's parking garage.
Intercity buses
On August 1, 2011, John Porcari, the United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation, announced that Greyhound Lines, BoltBus, Megabus, and Washington Deluxe would begin operating intercity buses later that year from a new bus facility in the station's parking garage. By November 15, 2011, BoltBus, Megabus, Tripper Bus, and Washington Deluxe were operating from the new facility. On September 26, 2012, Greyhound and Peter Pan Bus Lines moved all of their Washington, D.C., operations to the facility. In 2017, OurBus began offering service from Union Station to Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. On August 16, 2024, Megabus discontinued service nationwide after the parent company filed for bankruptcy earlier in the year, prompting Peter Pan to take over the former's northeastern bus routes from Union Station.
Maintenance
The Ivy City Yard, just north of Union Station, houses a large Amtrak maintenance facility. This includes the new maintenance facility for the Acela high-speed train sets. Amtrak also does contract work for MARC's electric locomotives. Metro's Brentwood maintenance facility is also in the southwest corner of the Ivy City Yard. Riders on the Metro Red Line between Union Station and Rhode Island Avenue Station get an aerial view of the south end of the Ivy City Yard.
Owner
Union Station is owned by Amtrak and the United States Department of Transportation. The DOT owns the station building itself and the surrounding parking lots, while Amtrak owns the platforms and tracks through the Washington Terminal Company: a nearly wholly owned subsidiary (99.9% controlling interest).
Formerly, the non-profit Union Station Redevelopment Corporation managed the station on behalf of the owners, but an 84-year lease of the property was held by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation and managed by Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle. Ashkenazy no longer owns or manages the building.
In popular culture
Washington Union Station has appeared in several movies and television shows. Among them are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Strangers on a Train (1951), Don't Give Up the Ship (1959), Hannibal (2001), Collateral Damage (2002), and Head of State (2003).