Washington Union Station
Yes, you can still get a train ticket on some Amtrak routes to Washington DC to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump on Friday, January 20th. You will pay more this week than another time, but timing is important when traveling. Inauguration day in Washington DC is an event every American should try to attend some time in their life. If you wait for someone you really like to take the oath, you may end up never attending the event. One person witnessing history in the making can have a ripple effect. Stories get told and shared.
With an estimated 900,000 people attending this year’s presidential inauguration, train travel may be the easiest way to get there. Amtrak has released travel tips for the event encouraging passengers to allow additional time arriving at stations and citing limited access to entry and exit points at Washington’s Union Station. Minor stuff.
Washington’s Union Station is across the street from the Capitol Building and the National Mall. You won’t need any transportation to get where you want to be. Signs will direct you to the event. There are still some hotels with rooms available that are less than a mile from Union Station. Washington has a great public transit system. However, closed streets will affect bus and car traffic, so take the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains if your feet get tired. The Smithsonian station stop will get you to the Mall from wherever you may have wandered. Remember to pack light and plan extra time for almost everything as the city swells with crowds.
If you want to avoid or join the planned demonstrations, marches and protests here is the Washington Post guide with locations, time and dates. Here is the National Mall map to help orient you to the area.
Enjoy the train ride with your fellow citizens. You can tweet about your ride using @Inaug2017 and #Amtrak hashtag. I am @maryklest on twitter.
I traveled many miles on Amtrak trains this year and talked with passengers to see what I could learn from them. Some were serious minded, others were funny. They were of all ages – seniors, parents, college kids and children. They were of all religious, geographic, ethnic and racial backgrounds. Here is a summary of some things I learned while traveling by train during 2016.
Many of the people I met on the train were going to visit a family member or attend a family event. Chris from Yazoo City, Mississippi was returning from his daughter’s wedding. 
There were people I met who were unable to manage other transportation options due to a handicap. A military veteran of the war in Afghanistan with PTSD held his service dog in his arms. A 
