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.
I hope they actually start refurbishing the rails themselves soon, Trains keep getting bigger and heavier but lines stay the same. Another huge derailment happened a few days ago, right?
I kinda feel like the highly profitable railroads should be forced to pay for their own upgrades. Especially since they keep making trains bigger to increase their profits.
That’s kind of dumb, no offence, because if companies are in charge then they’ll intentionally do a bare minimum cut corners hack job. Just tax them and other (arguably worse) industries and use the tax revenue to make a proper improved rail system.
You may actually have a good idea there. I hadn’t even considered that option.