I am a 45 yo woman who is taking amtrak to union sq on a midwk day in april alone for business reasons. If I arrive between 10-11pm will I be safe in the station? Plan on taking a taxi to Holiday Inn On the Hill (NJ St);
Next day, metro to Rockville md.
for 9am mtg. Is this a safe plan? Looking to keep hotel costs down. Is the hotel area safe & convenient to museums in the day hrs?
Thanks!

I really think the dangerousness of DC has been overblown, so don't stress out about that. Of course you should take precautions, but don't worry too much. Taking a taxi is a good idea at that time of night, just let the cabbie know that YOU know it's a short ride - it's about a 3 block walk! The metro to Rockville will be just fine, but crowded. You're close to the Union Station metro, so you'll be in good position for sightseeing.
Have a great time!

Thanks, Wendy!
There was an earllier post from Christina or christine who gave detailed, somewhat alarming report including details of a probable gang incident in Union sta recently. I am from NYC so I am familiar with City issues, if you will. She made it sound like the way NY PT Authority used to be.

Yes, there was a shooting at the Union Station metro stop recently. However, I can tell you that is the exception, not the rule. I used to work by Union Station and took the metro to and from there every day without incident. I would avoid the metro area (which is separate from the actual area where Amtrak runs) at night, especially since it is not a well lit platform, but you should be ok with your plans. As I said, the shooting at Union Station is not a usual occurence. There was a shooting last year at the National Zoo, but I certainly wouldn't let it deter me from visiting. Incidentally, the metro ride to Rockville should take about 40 minutes during rush hour.

The Metro is extremely safe. There are very few crimes committed on the platforms and in the trains. Compared with any other large city's subway system, Metro is virtually crime free.

I have lived here for 13 years, and use to metro to commute to work and late at night, and I have never witnessed any trouble. And I've never felt nervous riding by myself at night.

Lets put the zoo shooting in a correct context ... it was not random or a robbery. A guy from one HS had been in a verbal battle with kids from another HS all day ... and as they left the zoo, he began to shoot ... wounded three. To say it's not the usual occurrence is really a strange way to describe what occurred. It was a freakish situation. By the way, it would be more convenient for you to stay at the other Holiday Inn - on 6th Street SW - Capitol - just across the street from the L'Enfant Plaza metro, and taxi cabs are posted right out front 24 hours a day. It is only a short block from main museums on the Mall. At Union Station, the taxis have to take you wherever you wish to go - you are in line. It is at most a 5-minute ride. It's perfectly safe.

"To say it's not the usual occurrence is really a strange way to describe what occurred." I was referring to the shooting at Union Station which was not a usual occurence. If you live in the area, can you please tell me how many shootings and violent crimes you can recall at the Union Station metro?

I've lived in DC for 15 years and agree that the image of crime in the city has been way overblown. In 15 years I've lived in a wide variety of neighborhoods--Georgetown, Adams-Morgan, Logan Circle, Carter-Barron--and have only ever been the victim of *one* crime, a break-in at my apartment on Euclid St. about 7 years ago in which my TV was stolen.

Other than the shooting already referred to, which was, as other posters have said, really an unusual incident, I don't know of any regular pattern of violent crime at Union Station metro, or in the station itself. It can get a bit raucous sometimes because local high-school students like to hang out at Union Station's food court and movie theaters after school, but thousands of commuters, shoppers, and travelers make their way through Union Station daily without incident. I frequently shop there, take the train from there, and see movies there, and have never had a problem.

Yes, I did live only three blocks from Union Station until a year or so ago, in NE. To say it is "not a usual" is what I find to be strange ... why not just say it was a rare occurrence, or that it has occurred only once at Union Station? In fact, Metro has been extremely violence free since the line to Pantagon, Pen. City, etc. opened in 1976. I wonder why you'd even mention that shooting? Why not mention crimes in the vicinity of her hotel, or near the taxi stand, or along the red line? The entire question about safety in DC is simply another canard ... it's always the first thing that comes to mind. Frankly I get tired of it, and I believe those of us who live in DC and know the city should do all we can to disspell this illusion of constant violence and get tourists to focus on something else for a change.

I mentioned the Union Station shooting because em asked about it (3rd post in this thread) in reference to Christina's mention of it on another thread.

hmm.. well since I was the one who reported that, I guess I'll weigh in. Yes, it is "unusual" in that there are not shootings every day, thank god. But kids shooting each other on mainstream metro stop is not exactly a common occurrence in many cities that I've heard of, and I do think that stop can be worse than others. I take it a lot and take that line northeast and am not always comfortable on it at night. However, if you are taking a cab from Union Station to your hotel, you won't be near the metro stop anyway, you will go from the train station out in front to the taxi stand, and I would certainly do that without worrying. Metro to Rockville in am is perfectly safe. I don't think my report was that detailed and alarming, I just reported that incident and said I would be careful on the red line going north from there and orange line going east at night; I do it a lot and I know what you can encounter on those lines at night. This is nothing too different than you encounter in many major cities though, I'm sure people in NY have certain lines and times of day they are more careful. I think this could be alarming to people who have no experience in a big city and are upset by any advice that there can be crime on subways and you have to be careful at night, and especially on certain lines. I think I said I'd never heard of problems in the daytime, and I made no reference to problems on the red line going to Rockville (as I've not heard of any). People get mugged on the line I take (red line to Silver Spring), sometimes at gunpoint, at least several times a year, although it's not reported on the front page of the Post so most people aren't aware of it, but it's reported in my local community papers--it's usually at the stop when they get off and are going to a bus or their car. People mentioned that shooting because she was planning on using that metro station a lot, I presume, which IS near her hotel. I think some people who aren't used to big cities overemphasize the violence in DC because they can't put into context or experience advice to be cautious on certain lines at night, but others underplay it and claim there is no problem and that tourists do not have to worry at all. Depends where you go and what you do; as I said in a prior post, there are tourists who end up in areas that are not so safe when they look for very cheap hotels, and I think they should be told of that. Anyway, that Holiday Inn is right near the Hyatt I was talking about before, so I would say it is an okay location and would stay there myself maybe. The main reason I wouldn't is that there's nothing around there at night very much, and I would prefer to be within walking distance of restaurants, like around Dupont Circle. I don't think the shooting at Union Station is exactly compariable to the zoo thing, as those kids at Union Station are a regular fixture whereas the zoo shooting was some special event, I forget what it was. (I fail to understand the quibbling over saying something is "not the usual" versus daying it is "rare", that passes me by as to what the argument is).

I am in and out of Union Station -- both the metro stop and the building itself -- literally every day and often late at night when getting back from a trip and have never felt the least bit unsafe.

Actually, em, now that I think about it, I would probably not stay at that Holiday Inn at all because I don't think it's very convenient for a lot of reasons. First, that hotel caters to families with kids so may not be the ambience you want (ESP Discovery Zone, special rates) and it's not really that close to a metro stop, the Union Station one is probably 4 blocks? I would not feel thrilled about walking there at night, it's not that bad, but I do not think that is a great idea, either. It's not really in a direct metro line to the museums, either, although it is a brisk daytime walk to the National Gallery. For your purposes, business to Rockville and some sightseeing, you can do as well as that price around Dupont Circle and that would be much more convenient for your meeting--you would cut off about 1/2 hr travel time right there, probably. The Jury's Hotel Dupont Circle has very good rates, just as good as that Holiday Inn, I believe, and is a better area and more convenient on all counts. It was just redone so should be decent, although it's not glamorous. And maybe "L" above who said that has never occurred at Union Station before would like to know that it has--there was a similar incident just last year at that exact same stop by local neighborhood gangs, only knives were used not guns (two teens were stabbed), and that was preceded by two guys held up at gunpoint on the Archives/L'Enfant Plaza line the week before. There are about 100 robberies on the metro system a year, those are the official statistics. Perhaps that is not bad compared to other city's metro systems, I don't know. Anyway, I would never recommend that Holiday Inn to a single person, male or female, coming to DC unless they had business nearby at some of the unions and associations around there.