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President Biden: Amtrak’s Best Days Are Still Ahead

President Joe Biden stands in front of a new Acela train during a 50th-anniversary celebration in Philadelphia on Friday. Screen Capture via White House. 

President Biden: Amtrak’s Best Days Are Still Ahead

By Justin Franz

PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden said Amtrak’s best days are “still ahead” during a virtual celebration to mark the railroad’s 50th anniversary in Philadelphia. 

Amtrak began operations on May 1, 1971, after Congress created a quasi-public corporation to take over passenger operations for 20 different freight railroads. Amtrak marked the occasion with a celebration in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon that was live-streamed online. Joining Biden was Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn. The live stream also included comments from elected officials, railroad presidents and long-time passengers. 

During his remarks, Biden made a pitch to invest not only in Amtrak but in America’s rail system overall. Biden’s proposal for infrastructure improvement, dubbed the American Jobs Plan, would invest billions of dollars into freight and passenger rail. 

“I am looking forward to a bright future for American rail,” Biden said. 

Biden enthusiastically endorsed Amtrak’s vision to build 30 new routes and attract 20 million more passengers in the next 15 years. In March, the same day the President released his infrastructure plan, Amtrak revealed a map of what it hopes its network will look like in 2035. Biden even name-checked a few of the routes, including Milwaukee to Green Bay, Los Angeles to Las Vegas (“That’ll be a popular one on Friday nights,” he said), and Atlanta to Charlotte by high-speed rail. The president has spent much of the week promoting his new infrastructure plans and is shaping it as a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to catapult America ahead and compete directly with countries like China, of which he noted, has more high-speed rail than any other country.

The President was introduced by an Amtrak conductor who worked along the Northeast Corridor when Biden was a U.S. senator and frequently rode between Washington D.C. and Willmington, Del. Biden recalled the many trips he took on Amtrak — so many that he’s been dubbed “Amtrak Joe” — including one instance where he took the train home to Delaware, met his family on the platform to blow out birthday candles and then got right back on the next southbound to be in Congress for a vote. 

“Amtrak has been a part of my life for as long as it has been around,” he said.

This article was posted on: April 30, 2021