Skift Take
When jet-setting Hollywood selects a train station, yes, a train station, for its greatest night of the year, you know the rail market is having its 15 minutes in the limelight. Oscars buzz can be temporary. Amtrak and its greatest fan at 1600 Pennsylvania Opportunity hope that isn’t the case this year.
Tom Lowry
It’s not every day that a sector of travel gets to share the phase– or be the phase, in this case– for Hollywood’s biggest occasion of the year, let alone the oft-forgotten train industry. However that is exactly what is occurring Sunday night as the Oscars ceremony is set to be telecast from Los Angeles’ 82-year-old Union Station, Amtrak’s sixth busiest station.
Union Station, and its spectacular Moderne, Art Deco and Mission Revival architecture, was chosen for its spaciousness in this year of Covid-19, officials said. And while stars like Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Viola Davis, and Gary Oldman will get great deals of broadcast at the 93rd Academy Awards, the attention of Union Station being on camera for three-plus hours will simply add to what amounts to trains in the United States having a minute.
After all, the brand-new president goes by the nickname “Amtrak Joe” for his years of faithful ridership between Washington, D.C. and Wilmington. President Biden has also proposed a sweeping infrastructure costs that consists of $80 billion for Amtrak, for whatever from much-needed maintenance of existing tracks to updating the busy Northeast corridor and connecting brand-new city pairs. A Republican counter to the bill proposes just $20 billion for railways.
Still, that individuals are in fact talking about reviving rail service in this method, instead of regreting its death, is highlighted by new U.S. Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s dedication to cleaner transit options. At a time when the pandemic has all of the travel market reassessing how it can do it better by being greener, rail service is appearing like more of a practical choice for lots of travelers– a minimum of, in theory.
Of course, Amtrak, like the rest of travel, was squashed by the pandemic. Ridership was down half across the country, consistent with the loss of riders on its Western paths, much of which stem from L.A.’s Union Station. Amtrak in November reported an $800 million loss for 2020 .
House to this year’s Oscars, L.A.’s Union Station. Source: Tony Hoffarth, Flickr. https://tinyurl.com/z7c9c3we That stated, after years of debate around why the U.S. is so far behind having modern rail service compared to the remainder of the world, officials definitely feel like an inflection point is here. “President Biden’s infrastructure plan is what this country has actually been waiting on,” Amtrak CEO Expense Flynn said in a statement recently. “America needs a rail network that uses frequent, trustworthy, sustainable and equitable train service. Now is our time, let’s make rail the solution.”
Source: Amtrak And even if the Oscars don’t gather huge ratings in this 2nd year of coronavirus, you can wager the train geeks will be glued. Hollywood trade publication Deadline reported: “The building lent itself to an Oscar show in its ‘enormous scale’ and ‘oxygen,’ enabling ‘horizontal scale and vertical sweep.’ Essentially, the old ticket-counter space at Union Station will house the main stage. The north and south outdoor patios with jacaranda trees will be used for the pre- and post-show.”
Oscars production designer David Rockwell told Deadline “the space will be used 360. There will be camera positions getting action throughout the room.”
Amtrak is hoping a little of the shine will shine its method as it gets ready for an unmatched year ahead.