Amtrak is looking to take control of a historic train station in the nation’s capital, with plans to make multiple investments in the location.
The railroad service sought control of the property interest owned by Union Station Investco, which has subleasing rights of the Washington, D.C., Union Station through 2084, in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday. Amtrak said it hopes to take over operations and management of the station to pursue multibillion-dollar investments to expand and repair the station, including a tunnel “in serious need of repair or replacement,” according to the Washington Post.
“We need to advance some long-delayed state of good repair and capital projects so that we can improve the station and shore up the station infrastructure,” said Dennis Newman, Amtrak’s executive vice president for strategy, planning, and accessibility. “An improved Washington Union Station is really key to our mission.”
The railroad service subleases a small portion of the station, about 13.4%, from USI for its railroad operations, but it wants to take over about 425,000 square feet of the station, which aside from the parking garage would include the entire property. Newman said Amtrak believes it is better suited to manage and operate the station because of its decades of experience.
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Amtrak claimed that “poor maintenance and lack of capital investment … plagued the Station over the years,” citing a 1981 incident in which heavy rains caused part of the roof to crash into the passenger waiting room. It also stated that roughly $75 million is needed for maintenance at the station and that there are “insufficient funds available through the Capital Maintenance Funds” in the USI sublease, according to a court filing.
Amtrak receives roughly $2 billion in federal subsidies each year. The CARES Act in March 2020 and the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 boosted the train operator’s government funding by another $2.7 billion.
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In the 2021 fiscal year, Amtrak reported a $1.08 billion loss in adjusted operating earnings.
The railroad service has not yet responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
