The contract between the two companies has been approved, paving the way for the new jobs.
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U.S. vice president Joe Biden has announced plans to lend railway operator Amtrak $2.45bn (£1.86bn) to expand services and make upgrades.
Vice President Joe Biden, a champion of Amtrak who rode the corridor’s trains nearly daily during his more than three decades in the Senate, joined Amtrak officials and deputy transportation secretary Victor Mendez in making the announcement at the Wilmington, Delaware, station named for Biden.
CNN reported in May that many aspects of United States rail systems – particularly along the Northeast Corridor – are in need of fix and rehabilitation.
In Delaware, a number of infrastructure projects are now being planned or being built, including a third set of tracks south of Wilmington and a $26 million rebuilt and expanded train station in Newark to accommodate students bound for the University of Delaware’s STAR campus.
Amtrak is already heavily subsidized by the federal government.
Amtrak recorded 11.7 million riders along that route in 2015 – its highest number on record. The railroad station there is named for Biden.
Amtrak’s funding has always been a topic of discussion in Congress.
“You can’t make this country work without rail”.
“Why in this country are we so boneheaded to not understand the essential value of a rail system that’s modern throughout the whole country?”
“The future of Amtrak travel starts today”, said president and CEO Joseph Boardman. As a senator, he made the commute to Washington from Wilmington almost every workday for more than 35 years.
Eight years later, he called Amtrak staff “my best friends in the world”. I believe it’s 257 miles a day.
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“These men and women have become my family”, said Biden, who briefly became emotional at Friday’s event. “They want me to fly”.
