“Amtrak Joe” Biden heads to Delaware to spend $16 billion on passenger rail projects

WASHINGTON— President Joe Biden — perhaps the country’s biggest Amtrak fan — traveled to Delaware on Monday to promote new federal investment for trains on the busy Northeast Corridor.

The president visited Bear, Delaware, to announce more than $16 billion in new funding to go toward 25 passenger rail projects between Boston and Washington, the White House said. Bear is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Biden’s home of Wilmington.

His speeches will be given at the Amtrak Bear Maintenance Shops, where trains are serviced and repaired. The investments, the White House said, will help trains run faster, reduce delays and create union jobs.

The money comes from the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that Biden signed nearly two years ago, one of several legislative achievements the president is touting as he prepares for re-election. According to the White House, Amtrak will receive about $66 billion in new investments through the bill.

During his 36 years as a U.S. senator, Biden traveled back and forth between Wilmington and Washington daily. The president said he logged more than 1 million miles on Amtrak during his public service career.

“Amtrak wasn’t just a way to get home to family,” Biden said at an infrastructure event in Baltimore earlier this year. “The conductors, the engineers – they literally became my family.”

According to the White House, there are approximately 800,000 trips daily on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, making it the busiest rail corridor in the United States.