Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the next phase in President Trump’s plan for Washington D.C. is to take direct control of Union Station, the major transit hub near the U.S. Capitol, in order to keep it clean and safe. They want to rebuild the mostly vacant mall and food court and prevent crime and homelessness. “It’s been neglected for decades, and it’s showing its age,” he said. “We are going to make the investments to make sure that this station isn’t dirty, that we don’t have homelessness in Union Station. We want a place where businesses want to obtain leases and set up shop and serve the community of D.C., but also the people who travel into D.C. via train.”

TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY SEAN DUFFY: If you’ve heard the president and you’ve followed D.C. news, the president has been very concerned about crime in our nation’s capital. He wants a capital that is worthy of the greatest country that’s ever existed on the face of the earth, which means a capital that’s clean, a capital that’s safe, and a capital that doesn’t have its parks overtaken by homelessness. So we look at our equities. We’re going to partner and invest in the streets of the city. But today we are going to look at Union Station. Union Station is, frankly, owned by DOT. We’re going to take DOT-from our partners-back under DOT control, and we are going to make the investments to make sure that this station isn’t dirty, that we don’t have homelessness in Union Station. We want a place where businesses want to obtain leases and set up shop and serve the community of D.C., but also the people that travel into D.C. via train. We also want-if you’re out and you want to go for a great meal, you want to go shopping-you want to come to Union Station because it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful, it’s safe, it’s a great experience. That’s what we want to do for Union Station. So today we’re announcing that we’re going to take Union Station back under DOT control. Not a power play-we’ve always had it-but we think that we can manage the property better, bring in more tenants, bring in more revenue. And that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building. It needs investments. It’s been neglected for decades, and it’s showing its age. And again, we want to make this place beautiful and the premier train station-not just in America, but the premier train station in the world.

Here’s the full announcement, also regarding new “Acela” train cars:
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