NEWSMAX: Amtrak is calling for $7 billion to triple passenger capacity at Washington’s Union Station and transform the iconic structure in a high-speed rail hub for the Northeast corridor, The Washington Post reported.
The station, opened in 1907, is just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol and is visited by 32 million people each year, drawn not just by trains but by the shops and restaurants in the structure. Union Station’s trains, including the high-speed Acela Express, travel up and down the East Coast, north to New York and Boston and south to Atlanta and New Orleans. Trains to points west are also available as well local commuter lines, a link to Washington’s subway and bus lines.
The expansion plan calls for doubling the number of trains at the station. Amtrak President Joseph Boardman told the Post that the “problem that we have is that we’ve got a lack of balance and investment in a mode that moves a lot of people, that is an environmentally responsible mode, and that changes the way that people are going to be able to travel in the future with the technology that is available today.”.. (more)
EDITOR: If Amtrak, bleeding money, wants to spend multi billions in DC, how much more will they have to spend to upgrade Pennsylvania Station in New York City? And for what? A track system that won’t allow trains to go at anything like their potential speeds?
