Tuesday Wasn't a Good Day For Many at WUS

[MrFSS]

Early Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama's storied night ended inside Union Station at the Eastern States Inaugural Ball, accompanied by the First Lady, Michelle Obama.

But the efforts to secure the venue, one of the busiest transportation hubs in the District, left many people out in the cold -- literally.

Around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, according to Cliff Black, director of media relations for Amtrak, the Secret Service closed down the picturesque Grand Hall of Union Station to secure the site for the evening's event as well as the food court and many of station's retail shops, Amtrak, Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC), and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) passengers would be allowed access to the station.

FULL STORY

 

[transit54]

Yea, I was there to witness that. It wasn't pretty. I was able to get through in about 20 minutes, but I'm sure those behind me were waiting for hours. I thankfully had printed my ticket that morning, because we were asked to show tickets to get into the station - they'd let about twenty of us through at a time. I have no idea what those who hadn't printed tickets yet did. I saw a few people futilely trying to buy tickets at a Quicktrak, only to realize all the trains were sold out.

Not to mention Union Station was absolutely mobbed inside. There was simply nowhere to go and very few places to sit.

 

[wayman]

Yea, I was there to witness that. It wasn't pretty. I was able to get through in about 20 minutes, but I'm sure those behind me were waiting for hours. I thankfully had printed my ticket that morning, because we were asked to show tickets to get into the station - they'd let about twenty of us through at a time. I have no idea what those who hadn't printed tickets yet did. I saw a few people futilely trying to buy tickets at a Quicktrak, only to realize all the trains were sold out.
Not to mention Union Station was absolutely mobbed inside. There was simply nowhere to go and very few places to sit.

I do recall reading at least a week in advance of inauguration that passengers departing on Tuesday must print their return tickets in advance. I can't recall where I read that, but I definitely read it. However, I can see many, many passengers not having been so informed--anyone who booked online and picked up their ticket to WAS at a QuikTrak would never have been told this, and that's easily 50% of people traveling out on Tuesday.

But wow, I'm amazed anyone thought they could just buy a walk-up ticket on Tuesday!!!

I'll post my inauguration train experiences over in the travelog section, but in short: extremely smooth and pleasant, though I was not traveling on Tuesday itself in either direction.

 

[MattW]

Who has a ball in a massive transit hub any ways!? Since they were blocking access to a public area, isn't that technically against the law!?

 

[Guest_Jim_*]

[it took me an hour to go from the subway platforms at union stations to the Amtrak platforms. Metro was doing a much better job of handling the crowds. I did manage to make my 4:00 pm train, but at 3:30 when I was in the gridlock outside the station, it was not clear that I would get in on time. I know my train was sold out yet there were plenty of seats on board, so I am assuming some people did not make it.

I even received an automated call from Amtrak warning about having a ticket to enter the station. It was also on-line. They did everything to let people know they needed a printed ticket. I find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't have their return ticket already. I am even more surprised that people thought they could buy a ticket on that day.

 

[the_traveler]

I find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't have their return ticket already. I am even more surprised that people thought they could buy a ticket on that day.

I'm sure it's not many, but how about people who were STARTING A ROUND TRIP in WAS that day, and didn't have their tickets printed yet - and were going to print them that day at the QT or CA? :huh:

I'm also surprised by the ones who thought they get a ticket that day!

 

[Gingee]

Wow. That would have been a big disappointment. I know we usually don't get our tickets until we get to the station (easier to cancel if necessary).

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

It's not that big a deal to have your tickets printed for the whole round trip at the start of the trip, though.

Two out of my last three Amtrak trips have worked out that way. The first was to Williamsburg, where it's fortunate that I booked it as a round trip to begin with, as Williamsburg doesn't have any facilities for ticket printing even though there is a building next to the platform manned by someone associated with the local bus system or some such.

With my most recent trip, I ended up getting the tickets for my return trip printed about 20 minutes before I departed BOS, figuring that getting back my $19 for the business class that they didn't have anymore that I'd paid for (even though, oddly enough, I did briefly physically sit in precisely one of those business class seats during my actual return trip) was going to be a bit of a hassle that I didn't want to deal with while I was getting help from family in CHI trying to drop off luggage. (I figured I would have gotten those return trip tickets printed when I arrived at SOB had I run out of time at BOS; I'd expected that finding parking at SOB would be easier than CHI, but it turns out that on-street metered parking near CHI was pretty readily available on a Sunday.)

 

[haolerider]

Who has a ball in a massive transit hub any ways!? Since they were blocking access to a public area, isn't that technically against the law!?

Have you ever been to Washington Union Station? It is not merely a "transit hub". It is a major piece of architechture in Washington and the Great Hall has been used as a site for one of the Presidential Balls for many years. Anyone traveling in and out of Washington on Inauguration Day was perfectly aware of the need to print tickets early and I doubt there were too many passengers using the trains for anything but access in and out of DC. I was there as a volunteer in the station that day and there were approximately 8.000 people per hour processed through the station during the peak hours of morning, afternoon and evening. Almost everyone in the crowds was under control and very happy. There were no major incidents and there were plenty of passengers thanking everyone for being so efficient. All in all, a very good job done by everyone.

The same cannot be said for the crowd control into the Mall however. There were lots of people with tickets that did not get in and they were not pleased at all.

 

[Husker Mom]

RailfanLNK had seriously thought of taking my 17 year old daughter to the Inuagauration. Both would have loved the event and both love being a part of history. But the more he looked into things, thought things over, thought of how many people were going to DC in that short of span and not knowing anyone in the DC area if things got boogered up, he decided it was best if he took the day off work and my daughter had her Young Democrats from her high school over for a party. Al thought it might turn into a logistical nightmare and having a ticket to the Mall and not getting in after travelling all the way from Nebraska was exactly why Al decided not to try and pull off this trip.

 

[RailFanLNK]

I know of only 1 person in the DC area and I don't even know him personally and thats Rafi! If I was travelling by myself, I wouldn't have been as cautious, but with a teenager and if everything fell apart (cancelled hostel reservation for some reason and no rooms to be found for 150 miles etc) I would have been really in a jam. I could easily survive on some street skills by myself, completely different when you have a young woman in tow. I knew that there would be a total cluster in all parts of DC and since I don't know that area very well, I just didn't want to risk her safety.

Al

 

[Crescent Mark]

I witnessed it all on Tuesday and things seemed fine to me. Lots of people but everything was smooth. I had a great time at the inauguration. I was back by the Washington Monument but it was still freakin' sweet.

Pic the day before the inauguration right after it snowed briefly (a real treat to a Georgia native):

I witnessed people complaining all day long about the metro problems though. I almost took it at 4am but I decided to walk 3 miles instead and I'm glad I did. L'Efant Square or whatever it was (no idea about spelling) 2 hours after the inauguration was just a disaster. Never seen so many people packed into one building. I went in to use the restroom and as I came out people flooded me with questions "Are the trains running!?!?" but I had no idea, heh. Absolute insane amount of people everywhere but I had the time of my life.

 

[wayman]

I witnessed it all on Tuesday and things seemed fine to me. Lots of people but everything was smooth. I had a great time at the inauguration. I was back by the Washington Monument but it was still freakin' sweet.

For all I know, we were standing next to each other--I was near the Monument too

I witnessed people complaining all day long about the metro problems though. I almost took it at 4am but I decided to walk 3 miles instead and I'm glad I did. L'Efant Square or whatever it was (no idea about spelling) 2 hours after the inauguration was just a disaster. Never seen so many people packed into one building.

About an hour after inauguration, I walked east past L'Enfant (four-block line to the station), past Capitol South (four-block line to the station), all the way to Eastern Market, where there was only a 30-foot long line to the METRO escalator and my friend and I got a pair of seats on the first train we saw.

 

[transit54]

But wow, I'm amazed anyone thought they could just buy a walk-up ticket on Tuesday!!!

I suspect that they were all MARC customers who were stranded and just looking for any way possible out of the place. I'm not really sure how MARC was handling things, but I do know a good number of people missed their assigned MARC trains. The MARC line was moving much, much slower than the Amtrak run and was twice as disorganized.

 

[Tygercat]

Actually, the Great Hall gets rented out on a fairly regular basis. Regular travelers through WAS probably know about these events and plan accordingly, but those of us who go there only infrequently tend to get surprised by them. I was there in Sept on account of a conference in downtown DC, and my husband asked me to stop by the US Mint sales desk on the way home. By the time I got there, the Hall was blocked off and the vendors in it all closed up. Seems it was booked for a college fraternity dance or some such thing. And in any case, even on a normal business day much of the floor space there is taken up by restaurant seating.