Union Station opens: “a rider experience”

interview with Phil Washington

Before it closed permanently over the weekend, Denver’s Market Street Station was at capacity.  But the mass transit passenger load is still growing through downtown Denver.  Everything came together at the right time to build an entirely new transit hub at Union Station.  ”We’re trying to enhance the rider experience,” said Phil Washington, general manager of the Regional Transportation District.  The new underground concourse was gleaming.

Beaming like a proud papa, Washington visited the KUVO broadcast booth during last Friday’s grand opening ceremonies of the Union Station Transit Center, a hub that brings together light rail, express buses from the suburbs, free downtown shuttles and Amtrak passenger rail service.

Washington also spearheaded RTD’s Workforce Initiative Now (WIN) program to ensure local “ownership” of the massive construction project, and career development at the same time.  ”We are very, very, very supportive… and require contractors to look at hiring people in the zip codes where we are building.”