Amtrak takes over Union Sta­tion: What rid­ers need to know

Amtrak’s takeover of Union Station’s com­mer­cial areas took effect today after an appeals court denied a request to post­pone the tran­si­tion pend­ing appeal.
In 2022, Amtrak launched an emi­nent domain law­suit to gain full con­trol of the ter­mi­nal from Union Sta­tion Invest­co.
In April, U.S. Dis­trict Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of trans­fer­ring Union Station’s com­mer­cial lease­hold inter­est to Amtrak.
Although Mehtra had pre­vi­ous­ly declined to halt the trans­fer dur­ing the appeal, he delayed the takeover from July 15 to July 29 to allow the appeals court time to weigh in.
Union Sta­tion stake­hold­ers are plan­ning an $8.8 bil­lion mod­ern­iza­tion project that is expect­ed to take 13 years.
“We look for­ward to imple­ment­ing a plan to improve the his­toric sta­tion for trav­el­ers, vis­i­tors, and the com­mu­ni­ty,” Amtrak said in a state­ment after the appeals court’s rul­ing.
In Amtrak’s vision, pas­sen­gers will enjoy new seat­ing areas, upgrad­ed restrooms, and realigned board­ing gates instead of wait­ing in tight, crowd­ed cor­ri­dors.

Amtrak had pre­vi­ous­ly argued it couldn’t pur­sue t …