Go to Union Station

I had an epiphany as I was standing in the grand hall at Union Station the other morning. Maybe I heard this somewhere and forgot it. That happens to me occasionally. I was looking across the concourse at the information booth on the West end, at the mathematical rows of tourist fliers in the pockets around its edges. Then it hit me. If I were a tourist, I shouldn't just be able to get pamphlets for things here. I should be able to get there from here.

Every tried to drive in a strange city? It's miserable, isn't it? I once spent an hour lost on the South side of D.C. My guide that day was a relative who had lived in a Maryland suburb for two years. What would have happened if I hadn't had a guide? A friend of mine once spent an hour trying to return a rental car in England because he couldn't find a way onto the one-way street where the garage's return entrance was located. He finally paid a hotel concierge £5 to return the car for him. (It was also my friend's first experience driving a stick, and on the left side of the road. My friend saw so many middle fingers that day that he thought the English might not be as unflappable as he was lead to believe.)

We may think that our City is easier to get around in than D.C. or London, but that's because we live here. About a year ago, my sister, who's lived in this area all 35 years of her life, called me in a panic because she couldn't navigate the one-way streets downtown to get her to the court house on time.

Imagine this: What if buses ran out of Union Station to all the tourist destinations in town? Someone asks a hotel clerk, "How do I get the Plaza?" Answer: "Go to Union Station." "How do I get to the River Market?" "Go to Union Station." "How do I get to the Power and Light District?" "Go to Union Station."

You might be asking, why other than avoiding getting lost is this a good solution? First, the buss pass is a day pass, which gets your parking validated. If you're done with the Jazz District sooner than planned, take the next bus back to Union Station, maybe have lunch there, and catch an outbound bus to the Plaza. We could also feed the system by making it stop near all the major hotels and by selling the bus passes in the hotels themselves.

Some of the destinations would be on the same lines. For example, a line that runs Union Station-P&L District-River Market would be in a good position to pick up Station Casino. A line out to 18th and Vine could pick up the Kansas City Museum in the Northeast. 

Over time, we can increase capacity by adding destinations to existing lines. For example, imagine if we'd already had this in place several years. The recent opening of the money museum would have meant adding a stop on the hypothetical Plaza-Westport line.

I don't know if the numbers are there to support his idea. Every few years someone produces yet another transit or transportation study. Is it too much to ask that somebody look into this?