$82 million in upgrades coming to Union Station
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Mayor’s Office announced $82 million in upgrades coming to Union Station.
The funds will essentially be split into two buckets: The first bucket is nearly $59 million in more immediate upgrades. There are long-term plans for a full revamp of Union Station but that won’t be done for a while. So the $59 million will go towards some of the shorter-term investments.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called them immediate safety and operational needs at the station.
The other $24 million announced by the Mayor’s Office and U.S. Department of Transportation is geared more towards the longer-term future of Union Station.
FOX 5 has extensively reported on new leadership at the station and plans for a $9 billion revamp.
READ MORE: Nearly $9 billion Union Station renovation could take over a decade
That is still in the very early phases but this additional $24 million is for design, utility and geotechnical work.
FOX 5 spoke with a lifelong D.C. resident who loves Union Station and would like to see it get this major face lift.
"Of course you see the building kind of going down a little bit in certain areas, I don't know, east or west part, you can see how the building looks a little darker on the bottom. The inside, it’s been revamped a couple of times though," Kai Banks said.
The Union Station Redevelopment Corporation says they’re just about 10 percent of the way there in terms of a design so there’s a long way to go and a lot of uncertainty about what this will all look like and when it will happen but this money represents an early step.