The $5 million project would add additional fare gates and a new staircase to the entrance to the Metro station, which experiences the most daily foot traffic of any station in the system.

The project would also bring expansive windows, a sleek glass-and-steel canopy and a new pedestrian ramp to the First Street entrance — a dramatic change from the current entrance, a dimly lit cutout in the fortress-like of stone wall that doesn’t do much to brighten the barren, windswept thoroughfare.

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In a presentation to the Metro board released in advance of a Thursday meeting, Metro officials said the District and Maryland have agreed to reimburse the cost of the project, which would be tacked onto an another project that’s already in the works at Union Station — a redesign of the Amtrak concourse.

The concourse project is scheduled to be put out to bid later this year, and would be completed by 2020.

The plan to expand the entrance into the Metro station has been in the works for a decade; back in 2011, a report on capacity and access issues at Union Station warned that Metro’s facilities were already reaching untenable levels of crowding and congestion.

“Without major capacity enhancements, Metrorail‘s north mezzanine at Union Station would be unable to accommodate the anticipated growth, leading to congested travel conditions for customers and impacting all transportation services at Union Station,” the report said.

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More recently, the problem has gotten worse, with long lines forming as passengers wait to pass through the fare gates on their way in and out of the station. And it doesn’t help that Union Station is frequented by tourists who linger on the mezzanine level as they consult maps and fiddle with the fare vending machine.