Track 22 at WAS

It looks like Track 22 (currently used only to store idling equipment) will be restored to passenger service:

Amtrak will use a $19 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to convert an idle track into a lower-level passenger platform.

Known as Track 22, it currently serves as a storage track for equipment, with no access for customers.

The construction project will involve installing new track, rebuilding the platform and restoring historic columns at Union Station’s lower level. A new elevator, escalator and stairs will also be installed to give passengers access to the lower level.

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The bad news: it won't be in service until 2022.

It will also be available for VRE passengers, not just Amtrak.

Is this the last "quick and easy" track and platform capacity expansion remaining at WAS?

Can they spend a few bucks to patch up the platform canopies. Its like walking under a waterfall every time I take a stretch break at WUS.

Bob Roberts wrote:Can they spend a few bucks to patch up the platform canopies. Its like walking under a waterfall every time I take a stretch break at WUS.

They did a nice job with the canopy for 23 & 24, and I assume the canopy will be included in the ongoing rebuild of the platform for 27 & 28. Once they’re done with that, I think they’ll move to the 25/26 platform. The canopy for 22 (and the long gone 21) is currently nothing but the bare metal supports.

Arlington wrote:Is this the last "quick and easy" track and platform capacity expansion remaining at WAS?

The only other one I can readily imagine is 29 (currently used for idling equipment, I think), but that would require access from the concourse.

Station Aficionado wrote:

Arlington wrote:Is this the last "quick and easy" track and platform capacity expansion remaining at WAS?

The only other one I can readily imagine is 29 (currently used for idling equipment, I think), but that would require access from the concourse.

Hmm, zooming around in Google Maps & Bing it looks like
Track 21, if they can move all the signal/electrical stuff
Track 29 (and 30?) if the give it concourse access
Restore a track or two in the "driveway" c. "31"

After that, it seems the only options will be up or under.

Arlington wrote:

Station Aficionado wrote:

Arlington wrote:Is this the last "quick and easy" track and platform capacity expansion remaining at WAS?

The only other one I can readily imagine is 29 (currently used for idling equipment, I think), but that would require access from the concourse.

Hmm, zooming around in Google Maps & Bing it looks like
Track 21, if they can move all the signal/electrical stuff
Track 29 (and 30?) if the give it concourse access
Restore a track or two in the "driveway" c. "31"

After that, it seems the only options will be up or under.

30, I think, is a stub with no tunnel access. It’s usually filled with cars that are not moved for longer periods.

The former 21 would require an awful lot of work to remove the signal equipment and the concrete pads that now occupy part of the trackbed. Also, the clearances by the retaining wall look very tight.

How strange to be repairing those canopies! They will be entombed under 10 stories of concrete as Akridge builds his air-rights complex.

For the same reason, making more tracks useful augurs well for some level of train service continuing during that construction project. Amtrak will have to realign the platform tracks to accommodate Akridge's supports. To anyone still smarting from the Albany debacle, the much larger chore looming at Washington promises to be a long and painful process. One or two "rediscovered" platforms will provide leeway to take some others out of service to drag them a few inches east or west and glue them back down.

Some of the recent long-distance changes may be related as well, because planning is under way to redo Amtrak's portion of Union Station to mesh with Akridge's project... parking will move to L Street, etc., etc.. As for the station building itself, there is a theory that space could be used more productively if only back-of-house space devoted to functions like food-service prep could be reduced or eliminated. Experiments with "contemporary" bamboo lunch boxes, and more in the same vein, provide data to show that those functions can safely be cut out.