President Joe Biden — perhaps the nation’s biggest Amtrak fan — is set to promote new federal investments for trains on the heavily trafficked Northeast Corridor.
The Democratic president is headed to Bear, Delaware, on Monday to announce more than $16 billion in new funding that will go toward 25 passenger rail projects between Boston and Washington, the White House says. Bear is located about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Biden’s home of Wilmington.
His remarks will be held at the Amtrak Bear Maintenance Shops, where trains are maintained and repaired. The investments, the White House says, will help trains run faster, cut delays and create union jobs.
Indeed, yay trains, and I unironically also like that look. In the thumbnail I thought it was a sweater at first. It says I’m the President, but I’m here to work. Rail–any rail–would be a significant improvement in American infrastructure in so many places. I don’t live anywhere near the NE, but I know it has to succeed for there to be hope for the rest of us in my lifetime.
Canada, with its insane metro sprawls and vastly distributed rural and northern populations, is optimistic about good precedents being set as well.