Union Station is the busiest Metrorail station in Washington, D.C. Located on the Red Line at 701 First Street NE, it averaged 18,393 weekday entries in 2025, ranking first among all 98 stations. Metro Center comes in second, averaging 16,152 daily riders.
In brief
Union Station is the busiest Metrorail station in Washington, D.C. Sitting on the Red Line at 701 First Street NE, it averaged 18,393 weekday entries in 2025, ranking first out of all 98 stations in the system. Metro Center comes in second at 16,152 daily riders. No other station in the DMV comes close to that top-two gap.
Why Union Station pulls the biggest crowd
The Metro station sits in the Northeast quadrant of the city, directly under the western end of Washington Union Station, the city's main intercity rail terminal. That location alone funnels an unusual mix of people through the same fare gates: federal workers commuting in from Maryland suburbs, Amtrak passengers connecting onward, and MARC and VRE riders transferring to the Red Line.
More than 100,000 visitors pass through Union Station each day, including passengers using Amtrak, MARC, VRE, Metro, buses, taxis, and Capital Bikeshare. The Metro entrance captures a large share of that foot traffic before riders ever reach a train platform.
In fiscal year 2025, Washington Union Station ranked second among all Amtrak stations nationwide, with 6,010,221 Amtrak riders. Pair that with Metro's own numbers and you get a transit hub that genuinely has no equivalent in the region.
A station that has been number one for decades
The Metro station opened on March 27, 1976, as Union Station-Visitor Center alongside the rest of the original Red Line, and was renamed simply 'Union Station' in 1982 after the National Visitor Center closed.
Its top-ranked status isn't new. Even going back to 2016, when WMATA's planning team released a full station-by-station count, Union Station led the system with 29,371 daily entries. Those pre-pandemic numbers were higher than today's, but the ranking has not changed.
With a daily average of 12,202 tapped entries in 2024, it was the busiest station in the system, and the 2025 figure of 18,393 reflects continued recovery as more riders return post-pandemic.
The rest of the top stations
Metro Center averages 14,110 daily riders as of October 2025, making it the second-busiest in the system. The station is in downtown, centered on the intersection of 12th Street NW and G Street NW. It is one of four major transfer points in the Metrorail network, connecting the Red Line on its upper level with the Orange, Blue, and Silver lines below.
Dupont Circle, located below the traffic circle, is one of the busier stations in the system, with an average of 16,948 entries each weekday. That figure, sourced from Wikipedia's citation of WMATA data, would put it above Metro Center in some recent counts, the exact ranking shifts slightly depending on the measurement period.
For riders curious about stations outside the District: Rosslyn averaged 5,941 daily tapped entries in 2023, making it the eleventh-busiest station in the Metro system and the busiest station outside Washington, D.C.
The system behind the numbers
The Washington Metro has 98 stations and logged a weekday ridership of about 675,100 as of Q2 2026. The system remains the second-busiest rapid transit system in the United States, behind the New York City Subway. Overall, Metrorail, Metrobus, and MetroAccess ridership grew 12% in 2024 compared to the prior year, totaling more than 250 million rides.
Union Station's Metro entrance is at 701 First Street NE, a short walk from the Capitol. The station is fully accessible, open daily, and has Capital Bikeshare racks directly outside. Peak Red Line trains run every 4 to 5 minutes during rush hours.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
