WASHINGTON — There are echoes of life returning to normal in Union Station; not a whisper, but an ambient energy now coursing through the 115-year-old landmark.
A year after lockdowns reached Washington, hours are increasing for restaurant workers within the station’s West Hall. A Läderach Swiss chocolate store recently opened between the Amtrak gates and the gilded Main Hall, with the splendor of giant Easter bunnies now filling the boutique’s windows.
Down the hall, a new Paper Source opened its doors, receiving a trickle of traffic during what counts as a Friday evening rush hour in March 2021.
Yet what was lost from the pandemic is still plain to see. An entire upper level of retail remains nearly empty, with an opaque outlook on whether corporations will ever reopen or restock shuttered stores.
“It is difficult to estimate [the economic toll] because it fluctuates,” said Beverley Swaim-Staley, president and CEO of the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation.
“Many retailers and restaurants went to modified hours, and then they closed, and they’ve come back with modified hours. And frankly, that is still changing.”
What seems clear is that the nadir has passed, Swaim-Staley said, when Amtrak traffic was down 95% in the spring of 2020.
A year later, special events are being booked for the summer and fall, after graduation celebrations for Georgetown, weddings and galas were all put on hold.
“That gives me great hope,” Swaim-Staley said. “We are receiving many phone calls, and that is reflective that Washington Union Station will always be a special place for people to be.”