Aside from D.C., there are at least 15 other noteworthy cities when it comes to railway renovations, according to the blog BeyondDC. Last month’s announcement regarding the District’s plan to overhaul Union Station caused a big commotion in the media, leaving many of the other stations’ master renovations in the shadows.
Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Seattle—they all have big plans for investing in their rail depots. Train travel often waxes nostalgic, but as air travel becomes increasingly burdensome, passengers are once again turning to the trains to get them from point A to point B.
Some cities, such as Raleigh, N.C., and Sacramento, Calif., are getting brand new stations, while others are getting a facelift. But it’s not just the aging stations that need some TLC—railcars and the supporting infrastructure are showing their age, too.
Perhaps D.C.’s Union Station gets so much attention because it’s part of the busiest train corridor in the country. “Nationally, Amtrak ridership is at a record 30 million people; the Northeast accounts for more than a third of that and is virtually the only portion of Amtrak’s system that makes money,” Ron Nixon writes in The New York Times.
With those high numbers comes inevitable wear and tear. (“Between New York and Washington, Amtrak said, 75 percent of travelers go by train,” Nixon writes.) So while station updates are good for cities’ egos, railcar and infrastructure updates are good for passengers—and business.
