# DC dopers - question on Union Station, Red Line **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154 "2004-05-20T11:16:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/1 "2004-05-20T11:16:38Z")
I have a question for any of you who live in the Washington DC area and are familiar with Union Station and The Metro (Red Line, in particular). My 14 year old daughter is traveling on her own to visit friends in Rockville, MD this weekend from New Jersey. She has a good head on her shoulders, and she is a reasonably astute traveler. The route we have mapped out for her is to take Amtrak to Union Station in Washington. From Union Station she’ll take the Red Line towards Shady Grive, and get off in Rockville. She’s being doing this in the middle of the day on Friday. She figured she’d ‘Ask someone with a hat’ for directions on how to get to the Metro once her train arrived in Union Station. She has a Metro system map printed out in advance. Anyone have any tips, ideas, directions for me? Is the Metro downstairs from the train platform? Union Station, as I remember it, is clean, and safe. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/2 "2004-05-20T11:42:58Z")
Yeah, they’re both in the same building so it’s just a question of finding the escalator down to the Metro. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/3 "2004-05-20T11:45:47Z")
As best I can recall, the Metro stop at Union Station is one level below the platform where Amtrak and MARC trains arrive. Your daughter would get off the train, take a right, and go down the stairs or the escalator to continue her journey on the Metro. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/4 "2004-05-20T11:53:00Z")
It’s all pretty well marked. After getting off the train, she would walk toward the front of the train to enter the station proper. (The entire crowd will be doing this, so she needs to merely follow everyone else.) Once inside, there are two choices - up the left escalator to the shops and street level, or down the right escalator to the Metro platform. Not too tough. I’m sure she can handle it. If she does make a wrong turn, though, folks are pretty friendly around here. (But again, most people would be heading to Metro, so she’d likely be OK following the crowd.) ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/5 "2004-05-20T11:54:28Z")
Just be glad you’re not sending her down there on the Greyhound. Now _that’s_ a dodgy journey to the Metro. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/6 "2004-05-20T14:07:34Z")
“Ask someone with a hat” is good advice. Union Station is crawling with police, Metro, and railway employees. She should be fine. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/7 "2004-05-20T14:38:26Z")
As mentioned already, it’s easy to get to. To be redundant, I’ll add my own directions. After entering Union Station through the Amtrak gates, turn right. Keep walking, passing various fast food kiosks and newsstands, until you hit a wall. (Figuratively speaking.) Then turn left and continue walking until you see a bookstore with large glass windows on your right. The windows are in fact the entire storefront, so it should be easy to spot. The escalator taking you down to the Metro should be visible just up ahead. At the bottom, if you leave the escalator and walk in the direction you’re already facing, you’ll see the Metro entrance a ways up ahead, at the end of the corridor. There will be signs of course to identify the entrance. The Metro trip to Rockville will cost somewhere between $2 and $3. To travel on the Metro, you need one of their magnetic paper tickets, which act like debit cards. These tickets are sold by vending machine at every Metro station entrance. **However** , the machines do not make change on large bills like twenties (and maybe not even tens, if I remember right), so your daughter should be sure to have some smaller bills already with her. Otherwise she’ll find herself with over $17 locked up in a Metro ticket. The money _cannot_ be refunded. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/8 "2004-05-20T15:48:29Z")
Just to add to the basic directions, she really just needs to follow the signs. If she keeps an eye out for signs pointing to the Metro station she can’t miss it. There are two ways to get down there. The first is to make a right as soon as she steps inside the doors to the station. The second is to take the escalator in front of the B. Dalton bookstore down and then just walk straight. She’ll need small bills or a debit/credit card to get her Metro pass. It’s not really too hard and she won’t get lost. Note: If the metro goes outdoors immediately instead of staying in a tunnel, she’s gone the wrong way and needs to get off at Rhode Island Ave (the next stop) and walk to the other side of the platform to get on the train going to the proper direction. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/9 "2004-05-20T15:58:13Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > Just be glad you’re not sending her down there on the Greyhound. Now _that’s_ a dodgy journey to the Metro. I’ve only ever done that once, and that was in desperation to get to somewhere near DC for Thanksgiving, with Greyhound being my absolute last choice. It’s not a very long walk, just up the street a bit, but I can see where the panhandlers and such could put one off. I must be a soft touch; I always seem to wind up parting with a few bucks whenever I go to DC, but that’s generally because the people have had a decent spiel and whatnot instead of just saying “please give me money.” I’ll agree that it’s probably not the best part of DC, and I did not feel all the comfortable when I was toting a backpack and a duffel bag. I wouldn’t have as much of a problem doing it again with no luggage. The DC Metro system is pretty easy to figure out. Fares are all done by total distance traveled (my personal preference) and not by zones. It’s a small system compared to some I’ve been on as well, plus it’s all in English (I’ve had my fill of trying to figure out subways in another language thanks to Berlin, Munich, and Vienna, not to mention they all seemed to be using zones.) Of course, it’s still not as easy as, say, Chicago, where it seems to be a $1.50 flat fee, no matter the distance. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/10 "2004-05-20T16:04:46Z")
By the way, on every Metro train there are maps showing the rail system. So she can take a gander at one and see how long it’ll be before she needs to get off. Also, she might do well getting into one of the end cars, which always seem to be less full than the others. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dc-dopers-question-on-union-station-red-line/246154/11 "2004-05-20T16:06:18Z")
Too bad I don’t work near Union Station anymore. I could have escorted Miss CBCD to Rockville.