Passenger Trains > How about a big hole in the floor at Wash. Union Sta.?

[..From the GreaterGreater Washington blog..]


> Should Union Station's Great Hall be less great?

> (Washington) Union Station's Great Hall is one of the city's most
> fantastic public spaces. It is beautiful, engaging, and lively. And
> somebody wants to tear a couple of giant holes in its floor. Earlier
> this week, Washington City Paper reported

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2010/08/23/preservationists-rally-against-plan-for-pit-in-union-station/

> on a proposal

http://www.usrcdc.com/update/6-18-10FINALCombinedUnionStation.pdf

> to cut holes in the Great Hall's floor in order to provide better
> access to the basement food court, and to replace the Center Cafe
> with a new larger and more modern version.
>
> Yes, holes in the floor. To access the food court.


Remainder can be read here -

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=6919



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/10 17:51 by GenePoon.

GG-1 4876 (IIRC) put a pretty good sized hole in the floor of Washington Union Station a while back. If they had known the place would be turned into a food court, maybe they wouldn't have replaced the floor...

I used to eat lunch there in the late 80s when I was at OSHA HQ at the Labor Dept. nearby. Neat place.

Great Hall seems pretty good as is. Access to trains could be better though. New signs are good, but people still seem to have trouble figuring out where to go to catch their train.

Do you think the prime reason for the existence of
Washington Union Station is as a railroad depot? As has been shown
over the decades, that's obviously no longer the case.

It is more important as a local shopping mall, and a place where you
can go down to the Food Court at lunchtime for a sandwich, or
moo goo gai pan, or a curry.

Anyone who endured the years during which catching a train at Washington
Union Station involved winding through narrow, temporary corridors with
rain water leaking through the ceiling, will know how little its
transportation function was regarded. The station's owner permitted its
near-destruction by conversion to the ill-fated National Visitors Center
and then the disuse of that converted space until outside private
investment permitted redevelopment of all but the concourse area into
the commercial center that it is, now.

The tail...the commercial developers' vision...now wags the dog...the
railroad function...at Washington Union Station.

Gene, you are absolutely right. As a frequent user of Union Station (for both train service and as a dining spot) I often think they should have left a bit more room for the trains.

But the recession has hit hard, and there are more and more empty spaces both upstairs and in the food court. My guess is that the owner of the "mall" space in the station wants to make the commercial space more attractive. Bad idea, IMHO. I remember the last hole they cut in the floor.

They could run another GG1 on the Federal and make
instant holes....

From "Greater Greater Washington" - the 3rd link:
"The hall's elegant classicism is fundamentally incompatible with a mundane food court."

This is the welcome we (they) want visitors to see while visiting the nations capital?
"Look at our great food court!"

/Mitch

Agt-Highland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They could run another GG1 on the Federal and
> make instant holes....

Funny...actually, except perhaps for its lighter weight, an AEM-7 could have done the same thing.

For the historians among us...the fault was with (of all things) the angle cocks on certain New Haven passenger cars back in the consist. The angle cocks were positioned so that under certain conditions of motion, they bumped the coupler pocket and could be pushed into the CLOSED position, making for no braking behind that point in the train. Operations then did not call for a preliminary application of brakes to see if they really worked. When the engineer applied brake to slow for the station stop, he had brakes on the GG1 and three cars; and no brakes on sixteen cars.

Cutting another hole in the floor at Washington Union Station is absolutely ridiculous. If people can't figure out what and where the food court is in this station/building - I really feel sorry for them. There's enough access to the upper and lower floors. The concourse/gate area for getting boarding trains could certainly be upgraded, but as stated, that's not the prime purpose of this station today - anymore.

I used to 'cut a rug', but jeezz, not that deep!!...

I LIKE the Center Cafe just as it is. Had dinner there with my oldest son a week ago and we both enjoyed the time together. And the server was extremely courteous and could see that we both were enjoying catching up on events over the past year.