Public meeting on (DC) Union Station Intermodal Transit Center Feasibility Study

National Visitor Center (Union Station, DC), postcard. In the 1970s, the Union Station building was used for a time as a "National Visitor Center." This was during the period when cities were declining and DC had serious problems of its own, and the NVC eventually failed. The building was successfully renovated in the late 1980s and today is one of the most successful retail properties in the Washington Metropolitan region, not to mention a thriving intermodal transportation center.

From email:

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a final meeting Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 6:00pm at Union Station in the Columbus Club to present the recommendations of the Union Station Intermodal Transit Center Feasibility Study.

The Union Station ITC Feasibility Study is a DDOT study designed to analyze the feasibility and impact of creating enhanced access to multiple modes of transportation at Union Station and the surrounding transportation network. The study focused feasibility reports/products on the following areas:

o Baseline Transportation Improvement Studies

o New Rail Passenger Concourse

o Upgraded Amtrak passenger concourse

o Improved Emergency Access & Egress

o Improvements to the Existing Rail Concourse

o Tour Bus & Commuter Parking Accommodations

o Streetcar Integration

o Pedestrian Tunnel from Union Station to 1st Street, NE

o New Metrorail Entrance from the H Street Bridge

o Baseline Environmental Requirements Study

Upon completion of the feasibility study, DDOT will determine if further analysis is necessary and/or plan for the phased implementation of the study's recommendations.

For more information on the study or community meetings please visit the project website, Union Station ITC Feasibility Study.
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LOOKS LIKE THEY MISSED the need for a complete and integrated transit wayfinding and information presentation system. Don't know if I'll be able to make the presentation.

See for example these past blog entries, which discuss wayfinding issues

-- Final version of the Florida Market "Guerrilla" Wayfinding and Directional Signs
-- Florida Market proof of concept wayfinding signage and the need for a wayfinding conference."

Union Station has "unique" special needs for the provision of an integrated and comprehensive transit-mobility wayfinding system because the station is the most intermodal of any transit center in the region, providing subway and local bus service, intercity bus service, private touring bus service, separate commuter train services to Maryland and Virginia, a bicycle station, intercity passenger railroad service, parking for automobiles, and taxi services.

Union Station is "visited" by more than 20 million people each year.

I once heard a tourist exclaim in shock: "$20 to get to the White House!" Because he went up to one of those tour services like Old Town Trolley, and asked how much it cost, how to get to the White House. There was no independent source to get information about the various options on how to get around. (For example, at National Airport, if you want to take a taxi you are handed a sheet that explains the process, with estimates for the cost of reaching various locations in the Metropolitan area.)

(Note by the way that I have mentioned before that the voice announcement systems on other bus systems, certainly the tourist shuttles in Colonial Williamsburg, but also bus services in Baltimore through MTA, announce prominent landmarks as part of the information provided on upcoming stops.)

And I think I have written before that because of the prominence of the station as a transit center, it should be a place where there is the equivalent of Arlington's "Commuter Store" somewhere on the site (although I think it should be rebranded and broadened a bit to focus on "mobility" or "sustainable transportation" although that's a mouthful to try to brand), which fits in with the reality that Union Station is a major retail destination as well.


In fact, it should be a primary location for a "DC Visitor Center" too. While I do believe that the primary DC visitor center could be combined with a City Museum, many cities have multiple locations for visitor support services. DC does not. (At least not in an organized fashion. The DC Chamber of Commerce had one. There is one in the Smithsonian Castle, primarily for their museums. Now there is the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center too. Etc.)

Baltimore gets the Visitor Center right. And with their new Heritage Trail, like DC's extant trails in places like Downtown, Southwest, and Capitol Hill, they actually run the tours from the Visitors Center. Imagine if the City Museum had been central as a staging point for heritage tours around the city of Washington. But Union Station could be such a staging point as well.

Baltimore Visitor Center. Lots of tourist information and printed materials, staff (and trained volunteer staff), and a film. The film needs work and needs to be listenable in languages other than English, at least for a DC version. And they need a diorama explaining Baltimore's public transit options. No history though, other than brochures.