Intercity Bus Service at Union Station to Begin After Years of Norton Hearings and Persistence

August 1, 2011

Washington, DC--The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said the Congresswoman was relieved that the long struggle to bring intercity bus service to Union Station had borne fruit with an agreement between the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) and several intercity bus carriers to relocate their services to the Union Station bus deck. Norton, who has pressed for years for intercity bus service at Union Station, chaired the first hearings in recent memory on Union Station after she became chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, and began a sustained effort to bring intercity bus service to Union Station. In response to pressure from Norton's subcommittee and from the bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, USRC initially moved forward only with a pilot intercity bus service program in January 2010, but Norton continued to insist on permanent service, in keeping with the congressional mandate to make Union Station a fully intermodal facility. Norton finally asked the USRC chair, Deputy Secretary of Transportation John Porcari, to become active in negotiations with intercity bus carriers in order to get permanent intercity bus service at Union Station.

Norton said, "Union Station is behind other big cities in promoting fully intermodal travel, but today's economy, environmental necessity and public demand for inexpensive travel have now made intercity bus service a public necessity."

Norton continues to take a strong interest in Union Station, demanding a master plan for the station and, just last week, introducing a bill to require the first annual public audit of USRC.