4 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

Greater Greater Washington, 7/12/17:
 

Coming soon: A pedestrian tunnel at the King Street Metro station

 

 

A rendering of a pedestrian tunnel between Alexandria Union Station (on the right) and the King Street Metro station (left).

 

King Street station in Alexandria serves Metro, VRE, and Amtrak trains. But its layout is inefficient and hard to use. Virginia is providing money to build a new pedestrian tunnel that solves those problems.

There are two big problems at King Street station: First, Passengers can't walk directly between the Metro station and the Virginia Railway Express (VRE)/Amtrak station, even though they're right next to each other. Second, although there are three tracks for VRE/Amtrak trains, passengers can only reach two of them, which cuts the capacity of the station.

 

Continue here.

 

VRE: Alexandria Pedestrian Tunnel

[KevinKorell]

I thought that the third track was strictly a freight bypass.

 

A pedestrian tunnel  surely makes sense. One now has to use King Street to go between the VRE/Amtrak and Metro stations. But for Metro there would be a challenge as there would either have to be a new fare collection area within the tunnel, or the tunnel would have to lead to the existing area outside of the fare gates.

[CNJRoss]

Greater Greater Washington,8/5/19

Metro Reasons: VRE plans to revamp the Alexandria station without a new pedestrian tunnel

 

 

Tracks 3, 2, and 1 at the Alexandria VRE station as viewed from the west platform. The tunnel which VRE plans to retrofit with elevators is beneath the canopy. Image by the author.

 

The Virginia Railway Express’s plan to add a new pedestrian tunnel between its Alexandria station and the adjacent King Street Metro station has been put on hold, according to documents from VRE and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. VRE still plans to make other updates to the station, like making it easier and safer for people to access the platforms.

 

The Alexandria Station Pedestrian Tunnel project had several objectives: Eliminate the at-grade crossing between the two tracks closest to the station, make it easier for people to walk between the two platforms by adding an ADA-accessible route (i.e. elevators), and install a tunnel over to the King Street Metro station. Without the tunnel to King Street, VRE says passengers will continue to have to walk 300 feet from the exit of one station to the entrance of the other.

 

An overview of the project. Image by VRE.

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

The at-grade crossing is a disaster waiting to happen.  Glad it will be eliminated.  One never knows which track their train will arrive until announced, and then the station people have to get all passengers safely across the pedestrian grade crossing well in advance of the train showing up. If one is running late, well they still have the option of going downstairs and upstairs again, which is time consuming.  Hopefully once the improvements are in place they will be able to display the correct tracks for each train so that passengers can ensure they are on the correct side.

[KevinKorell]

ALX Now, 7/28/20:

 

   Alexandria VRE Improvements Headed to City Review 

 

 

A series of new improvements to Alexandria’s Union Station — a Virginia Railway Express stop — proposed late last year are moving forward toward city approval.

 

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