PHILADELPHIA – President Biden returned Friday to a place almost as tied to his identity as his decades-long quest for presidency: an Amtrak station.
This time, however, Mr. Biden did not launch a presidential campaign from the back of a train in Wilmington, Delaware, as he did in 1987. He barely had time to meet with commuters, a daily tradition during his decades in the Senate.
And he flew into town on Air Force One.
“I’ve ridden an Amtrak for almost as long as there has been an Amtrak,” said Mr Biden from a podium at the freight yard celebrating 50 years of rail transport, remembering a conductor named Angelo holding it Called “Joey”, baby! “and squeeze his cheeks.
The president came to Philadelphia to come up with his $ 2 trillion infrastructure proposal that critics believe is too big. He spent on a variety of topics, including broadband and care for the elderly and disabled, and projects aimed at tackling racial differences. His appearance on Friday was a message to Republicans that his plan includes lots of money for more traditional projects like railroads and bridges.
Mr Biden’s economic proposal includes $ 80 billion in funding for railroad projects, including improvements to the busy Amtrak corridor from Washington to Boston and expanding the service to 160 communities, including Las Vegas, Nashville, Atlanta and Houston .
The agency typically receives nearly $ 2 billion in annual Congressional funding. The Republicans have countered with $ 20 billion in railroad investments.
The president spent much of his pitch thinking about his connection with Amtrak.
He started traveling by train in the earliest days of the patched federal railroad in the 1970s, when he drove home to Delaware every night to look after his two sons, Hunter and Beau, after his wife and young daughter were killed in a car had been crash.
Many politicians have emphasized their daily origins. (The picture of Abraham Lincoln as a rail splinter was an early publicity campaign.) Mr. Biden earned his nickname as “Amtrak Joe” because he made an estimated 8,000 round-trip trips on the route. He would often sit in a window seat reading the newspaper in the morning light on the way to the Capitol.
He spoke to others, including Gregg Weaver, a retired Amtrak worker whose son Blake Weaver called the president “one of Amtrak’s most frequent drivers” on Friday.
Gregg Weaver said Mr. Biden always asked about his children and parents.
He was “just another passenger on the train,” said Weaver.
But Mr Biden offered some perks. He was going to invite some Amtrak employees to his Delaware home for Christmas parties. When he started driving with an entourage of the President, he often apologized to fellow travelers for the lack of space and admonished reporters who blocked the way to the seats.
Mr Biden was quick to remind the crowd of Amtrak staff, congressmen and local officials that Friday’s trip was not his first visit to William H. Gray III’s 30th Street Station.
“It’s likely because I took the late train back from Washington and slept through the stop in Delaware,” he said. “I’ve only done it about four times.”
Mr Biden also referred to his history in defending rail transport in the Senate. When the Bush administration proposed a restructuring of Amtrak, which would have relied on states to make up some of their deficit, he called it “cockamamie”.
In 2016, he announced a federal loan to fund a new high-speed Acela. One such train was stationed behind him when he spoke on Friday.
He had even planned to recreate his 90-minute trip from Wilmington to Washington for his swearing-in as president, but this was canceled for security reasons.
Just like this week in his first address to a joint congressional session, Mr Biden emphasized how investing would not only fight climate change but also create jobs. In his speech to Congress, he appealed directly to workers, saying 90 percent of the jobs created under his plan would not require a college degree.
On Friday, Mr Biden said it would be good for the environment to encourage more people to drive Amtrak instead of driving cars or trucks. The plan to expand the service would also connect big cities and job opportunities to underserved communities, he argued.
“It will create jobs and it will also add jobs,” said the president. “This means cities that were in danger of being left out and left behind are back in the game.”
However, Mr. Biden’s attempts to expand Amtrak lines will face challenges. A growing debate about restoring service between Mobile, Ala. And New Orleans could be a preview.
The White House says increased service will help reverse construction projects that have created racial differences. But in Mobile, a city councilor, Joel Daves, said that any city money spent on upgrading rail transport in the Gulf Coast Corridor only funded a “joy ride for the wealthy.”
Rail freight companies, which own much of the United States’ railroad tracks, have also argued with Amtrak over concerns that sharing the track could hurt its business. Amtrak’s petition to restore service is before the Surface Transportation Board.
“President Biden sees the importance of connectivity that passenger transport brings to cities and towns,” said John Robert Smith, former Amtrak chairman. “If the impasse between the interests of the freight railroad and the pursuit of passenger railways is not resolved, the comprehensive vision of a party for the passenger railroad is not a vision but a hallucination.”
Jim Mathews, executive director of the Rail Passengers Association, an advocacy group, said in an interview that Mr Biden’s support would boost Congress “to address transformative discussions.”
But on Friday, Mr. Biden did not return to Washington to stand up for lawmakers. After his speech, he commuted to Delaware – this time not on the train, but in a presidential motorcade.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs reported from Philadelphia and Pranshu Verma from Washington.
