Union Station (Washington Metro)

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Union Station

Station statistics

Address

701 1st Street, Northeast
Washington, D.C. 20002

Lines

Red Line

Connections

Amtrak, VRE and MARC by way of Union Station

Platforms

1 island platform

Tracks

Bicycle facilities

23 racks

Other information

Opened

March 27, 1976

Accessible

Code

B03

Owned by

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Formerly

Union Station-Visitor Center

Traffic

Passengers (2006)

11.897 million ▲ 2%

Services

Preceding station		Metrorail		Following station
Judiciary Square toward Shady Grove		Red Line		New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U toward Glenmont

Union Station is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C. on the Red Line.

The station is located in the Northeast quadrant of the city under the western end of Union Station, the main train station for Washington, at which connections can be made to Amtrak intercity trains as well as the Virginia Railway Express and MARC regional rail trains to the suburbs.

An old "Union Station-Visitor Center" sign on the station platform

It features an island platform with two exits, one mid-platform leading into the main part of the station and Massachusetts Avenue and the other at the northern end emptying onto 1st Street NE and to the main boarding concourse.

The station was originally named "Union Station-Visitor Center" but when the National Visitor Center there failed, it was renamed Union Station. In fact, one or two pylons still read "Union Station-Visitor Center," and a number of older stations still display this name on signage.

Like the other original stations, Union Station sports coffered vaults of concrete in its ceiling even though it is a shallow station constructed using simple cut and cover methods[1].

Service began on March 27, 1976 with the opening of the Red Line. It is the busiest station in the Metrorail system, averaging 33,000 passengers per weekday as of May 3, 2006.^[1]