Trump admin takes over Union Station

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It had really fallen apart. I remember when they did a big renovation back in the late 80s'/early 90s. There were so many shops and great places to eat. We'd go as a family (I was a kid at the time) just to have dinner there.

We took our kids there a few months ago since we had an Amtrak to NYC. So many vacant storefronts, and not much on offer at all. The place has really declined. I don't know who to blame, but whatever they had been trying to do to fix it wasn't working.

Yup. 1000%.

It's funny, because we just got back from Japan. Tokyo Station is absolutely mind warping. So many gourmet places to eat. Everything is immaculately clean. Insanely safe. You would go out of your way just to go to the train station to spend money. Everything is on time.

Union Station is probably 100 tiers lower than Tokyo Station. You're tell me the mighty USA with the world's #1 economy and sole remaining super power cannot do better than that sorry dump we have for a capital train station known as Union Station? There is absolutely zero excuse why we can't have a Tokyo Station.

I would rather have cancer research than a fancy train station. Also, we have so many effing billionaires, why can’t they put $$$$ toward it?! Sick of this sh-t. Elon and Trump and Bessent could do it and it would make no difference to their bottom line. They have too much money to spend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It had really fallen apart. I remember when they did a big renovation back in the late 80s'/early 90s. There were so many shops and great places to eat. We'd go as a family (I was a kid at the time) just to have dinner there.

We took our kids there a few months ago since we had an Amtrak to NYC. So many vacant storefronts, and not much on offer at all. The place has really declined. I don't know who to blame, but whatever they had been trying to do to fix it wasn't working.

Yup. 1000%.

It's funny, because we just got back from Japan. Tokyo Station is absolutely mind warping. So many gourmet places to eat. Everything is immaculately clean. Insanely safe. You would go out of your way just to go to the train station to spend money. Everything is on time.

Union Station is probably 100 tiers lower than Tokyo Station. You're tell me the mighty USA with the world's #1 economy and sole remaining super power cannot do better than that sorry dump we have for a capital train station known as Union Station? There is absolutely zero excuse why we can't have a Tokyo Station.

Tokyo Station has something like 6x the passenger count per day. Plus Tokyo Station is nearby to Ginza, one of the most popular shopping districts in the world, and on the other side, one of the most consequential business districts in the world. What the hell does Union Station have to compete with any of that? You can't have a Tokyo Station in Washington DC no matter how much you want it.

All I hear are excuses. It doesnt have to be Tokyo Station, the point is that it should be nice *like Tokyo Station*. Actually, your stats show how pathetic we are. The fact that Japan can have their capital station serve 6x the number of people per day and not have it look like a trash dump shows you how crappy we've become.

If the US is #1, then why are our standards so low and borderline third world? It should be EASIER to have a nice train station that is clean and safe *because* we only have to serve 6x fewer number of people that Japan does in its capital city main train station.

Clean up Union Station. It is a trash hole and a disgrace. It's so sad to see so many abandoned shops and urban decay in our country's capital city main station.

Well you see republicans hate mass transportation. So they have defunded for over 40 years. This is why the US infrastructure is so pathetic. It is republicans’ fault.

Now Trump and idiots like you think the US military will improve it. What the f are you thinking?

OMG, yes. The delusion on this thread is staggering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I take the train from Union station at least a dozen times a year. Maybe more. I was there this morning.

It's yucky and dingy. The homeless people and panhandlers have to go. The bathrooms are revolting.

Well the ceiling's already gilded. So at least that part is okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good.

Union Station is a filthy, God awful dump. It is unsafe. It is a national embarrassment that our nation's capital train station looks like a filthy open sewer.

Clean that garbage heap up, get rid of all of the junkies, and make it safe to ride again.

I'm there daily and it's fine. Not dangerous, not "an open sewer."
Is it a shopping center with good retail options? No. It's a transit hub. It has fast food and gift shops for the people killing an hour between trains.

Clearly you've never been anywhere nice in your life. The station is dumpsville USA. Why do Americans have expectations that are in the gutter. Train stations across the world are transit hubs where people may be for an hour or less, so? Go see how much better they are than dumpy Union Station.

So TBC, you support massive government spending on public transportation?

Or is this about making the station a pretty (and expensive) shopping center while the actual rail line continues to be both slower and more expensive than flying, and Musk torpedoes high speed rail projects? Because the point of Tokyo's nice station is its nice high speed trains that thousands of people use every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good.

Union Station is a filthy, God awful dump. It is unsafe. It is a national embarrassment that our nation's capital train station looks like a filthy open sewer.

Clean that garbage heap up, get rid of all of the junkies, and make it safe to ride again.

I'm there daily and it's fine. Not dangerous, not "an open sewer."
Is it a shopping center with good retail options? No. It's a transit hub. It has fast food and gift shops for the people killing an hour between trains.

Clearly you've never been anywhere nice in your life. The station is dumpsville USA. Why do Americans have expectations that are in the gutter. Train stations across the world are transit hubs where people may be for an hour or less, so? Go see how much better they are than dumpy Union Station.

So TBC, you support massive government spending on public transportation?

Or is this about making the station a pretty (and expensive) shopping center while the actual rail line continues to be both slower and more expensive than flying, and Musk torpedoes high speed rail projects? Because the point of Tokyo's nice station is its nice high speed trains that thousands of people use every day.

How about we start by getting rid of the vagrants? That’s low cost.

[Anonymous]

I think you all know that I've always felt the 12 most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to take an equity position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good.

Union Station is a filthy, God awful dump. It is unsafe. It is a national embarrassment that our nation's capital train station looks like a filthy open sewer.

Clean that garbage heap up, get rid of all of the junkies, and make it safe to ride again.

I'm there daily and it's fine. Not dangerous, not "an open sewer."
Is it a shopping center with good retail options? No. It's a transit hub. It has fast food and gift shops for the people killing an hour between trains.

Clearly you've never been anywhere nice in your life. The station is dumpsville USA. Why do Americans have expectations that are in the gutter. Train stations across the world are transit hubs where people may be for an hour or less, so? Go see how much better they are than dumpy Union Station.

So TBC, you support massive government spending on public transportation?

Or is this about making the station a pretty (and expensive) shopping center while the actual rail line continues to be both slower and more expensive than flying, and Musk torpedoes high speed rail projects? Because the point of Tokyo's nice station is its nice high speed trains that thousands of people use every day.

The station would be nicer if they wouldn’t have ever let dozens of people camp on Columbus Circle out front and wonder around shouting obscenities at passerbys and leaning out in public. The tents have been addressed just prior to Trump coming in because of the outrage over the encampments there but the damage was already done. Union Station wasn’t always the ire of right wing talk show hosts. It wasn’t always this way.

Now, because of a lack of will to police simple quality of life issues, they’ve removed most of the seating in the station because everyone must suffer now because the cops can’t tell people to move it who sleep on the chairs all day. It’s an adequate parable for American society.

[Anonymous]

To be perfectly honest, the station had dramatically been improved since Amtrak took control a year ago. But it was really, really bad from 2021 to early 2024.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good.

Union Station is a filthy, God awful dump. It is unsafe. It is a national embarrassment that our nation's capital train station looks like a filthy open sewer.

Clean that garbage heap up, get rid of all of the junkies, and make it safe to ride again.

I'm there daily and it's fine. Not dangerous, not "an open sewer."
Is it a shopping center with good retail options? No. It's a transit hub. It has fast food and gift shops for the people killing an hour between trains.

Clearly you've never been anywhere nice in your life. The station is dumpsville USA. Why do Americans have expectations that are in the gutter. Train stations across the world are transit hubs where people may be for an hour or less, so? Go see how much better they are than dumpy Union Station.

So TBC, you support massive government spending on public transportation?

Or is this about making the station a pretty (and expensive) shopping center while the actual rail line continues to be both slower and more expensive than flying, and Musk torpedoes high speed rail projects? Because the point of Tokyo's nice station is its nice high speed trains that thousands of people use every day.

How about we start by getting rid of the vagrants? That’s low cost.

It costs a lot less than deploying the National Guard, but for some reason, the GOP doesn't want to spend that money on addressing the problem, but rather on deploying troops.

[Anonymous]

Based on reports from other cities, this isn't about beautifying Union Station, but rather seizing control of the nation's rail system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be perfectly honest, the station had dramatically been improved since Amtrak took control a year ago. But it was really, really bad from 2021 to early 2024.

That was Covid and there was no one there so shops left. I go through it every day and most of the accounts here of its current state are exaggerated. It is so much better than it was even last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be perfectly honest, the station had dramatically been improved since Amtrak took control a year ago. But it was really, really bad from 2021 to early 2024.

The daily commuters like myself know this. People who live in DC know this. It's the MAGA who frequent this site who have no idea what DC is and how we live that are trying to tell us how horrible it is.

[Anonymous]

My issue with union station is that it's really hard to get to (we're in a close by VA suburb). We just take the bus to NYC. It's faster and easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good.

Union Station is a filthy, God awful dump. It is unsafe. It is a national embarrassment that our nation's capital train station looks like a filthy open sewer.

Clean that garbage heap up, get rid of all of the junkies, and make it safe to ride again.

I'm there daily and it's fine. Not dangerous, not "an open sewer."
Is it a shopping center with good retail options? No. It's a transit hub. It has fast food and gift shops for the people killing an hour between trains.

Clearly you've never been anywhere nice in your life. The station is dumpsville USA. Why do Americans have expectations that are in the gutter. Train stations across the world are transit hubs where people may be for an hour or less, so? Go see how much better they are than dumpy Union Station.

So TBC, you support massive government spending on public transportation?

Or is this about making the station a pretty (and expensive) shopping center while the actual rail line continues to be both slower and more expensive than flying, and Musk torpedoes high speed rail projects? Because the point of Tokyo's nice station is its nice high speed trains that thousands of people use every day.

The station would be nicer if they wouldn’t have ever let dozens of people camp on Columbus Circle out front and wonder around shouting obscenities at passerbys and leaning out in public. The tents have been addressed just prior to Trump coming in because of the outrage over the encampments there but the damage was already done. Union Station wasn’t always the ire of right wing talk show hosts. It wasn’t always this way.

Now, because of a lack of will to police simple quality of life issues, they’ve removed most of the seating in the station because everyone must suffer now because the cops can’t tell people to move it who sleep on the chairs all day. It’s an adequate parable for American society.

That's US Park Police and Amtrak police jurisdiction, not MPD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on reports from other cities, this isn't about beautifying Union Station, but rather seizing control of the nation's rail system.

Trump is not seizing Union Station; Union Station is a federal property. Trump just did not know it when he made his grand announcement. Duffy should have told him, but maybe he didn't know that it was federal responsibility from the start.