Biden’s Homage to AMTRAK
The nation's Amtrak rider-in-chief, Vice President Joseph Biden, has penned an op-ed for the rail network's monthly magazine entitled "Why America Needs Trains."
The Vice President and his wife share a tender moment -- on the Acela. (Photo: NYT)Biden
doesn't get too political in the piece, eschewing calls for more Amtrak
funding in favor of a paean to the "emotional connection" he
experienced riding the rails during his 36-year congressional career.
But the vice president, who has taken on a central role in the White House's high-speed rail push, closes with a strong endorsement of inter-city trains as pollution reducers:
Consider that if you shut down Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, it isestimated that to compensate for the loss, you'd have to add seven newlanes of highway to Interstate 95. When you consider that it costs anaverage of $30 million for one linear mile of one lane of highway, yousee what a sound investment rail travel is. And that's before youfactor in the environmental benefits of keeping millions and millionsof cars off the road.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog Los Angeles
Guest Opinion: Ten Years In, CA Active Transportation Program Lays Bare a Tale of Two Agencies
L.A. County needs to embrace physically-protected bikeways, robust traffic calming around schools, and similarly transformative, safety-focused projects
Eyes on the Station: Metro Fortified Turnstiles at MacArthur Park Station
Metro fortified turnstile entrances at MacArthur Park in order to curb fare-evading riders; sometimes this has adverse impacts on fare-paying riders
