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.
The biggest Amtrak fan? Maybe he can stop fucking them over by refusing to enforce existing law to give right-of-way preference to passenger rail.
If he did that then warren buffet might only earn an extra billion instead of the 1.2 billion he was hoping for. The horror!
He doesn’t seem to be a big fan of commercial rail either as the federal government stepped in to quash workers striking over lax safety shortly before that train derailed and dumped toxic waste all over a city in Ohio.
That’s incorrect. The administration worked with that union to meet their demands after the initial pause of the strike. That part didn’t get nearly as much news traffic as the first part though.
You seen the same non-rail union statement that everyone be posting. Demands were not met, a few unions got less than they planned to strike over. Others got nothing.
Hmmm who should I trust more: the statements released by the unions or some rando pushing a political agenda on the Internet?
No I know the exact statement you’ve seen, from the International Brotherhood of Electricians
You are incorrect. Most demands were not met.
No one walks out of any negotiation ever in any situation with everything they were asking for in the beginning. That’s how it works.
It wasn’t a negotiation though.
No one walks out of any negotiation ever in any situation with everything they were asking for in the beginning. That’s normal.
Awesome. The north east corridor should have more trains.
More trains, faster trains, fewer interruptions of service. This is the closest we have to good train service, the most in demand, the most useful. We’ll use everything we can get, rather than bitch and moan
meanwhile in nebraska if you feed a donkey the good oats, he might move a little faster
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Yes. Taxpayer money to for-profit corporations that have been posting record profits for years!
‘based’ Joe! Lol.
Rubes.
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How much do their executives get paid?
Profit can easily be manipulated by just raising salaries. All of a sudden its a business expense and not profit.
But surely you understand this, right? Clown?
Why don’t you look this shit up instead of asking ill-conceived, leading questions?
Amtrack is a public corporation that is for all intents and purposes owned by the federal government. The executives make an average of $250k a year, ranging from ~$50k to $650k. That’s slightly less (from what I can find) that what BNSF pays their executives.
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Okay. Would you rather talk about their overpaid executives?
You’re just trying to avoid admitting that they have the money for these projects, but it’s being funneled to a few people who don’t do any actual work.
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I’m not going to do your research for you.
If you want to believe that they’re just scraping by and need taxpayer handouts to expand, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Puffy vest under suit jacket is my favourite new look.
YAY trains!
Indeed, yay trains, and I unironically also like that look. In the thumbnail I thought it was a sweater at first. It says I’m the President, but I’m here to work. Rail–any rail–would be a significant improvement in American infrastructure in so many places. I don’t live anywhere near the NE, but I know it has to succeed for there to be hope for the rest of us in my lifetime.
The thing is that Acela has been a huge hit in the NorthEast since it opened . It has displaced millions of car trips, has displaced short-haul flights, has improved traffic in some of the most congested areas, improved air traffic in some of the most congested airspace . Imagine what it could do if it were actual high speed rail, if service rose to supply the need!
However Acela is based in the idea that no one will pay for high speed rail. Instead we have literally a century of billion dollar projects before we get there
I live just far enough to be jealous but I think it needs acknowledgement that the north east as a fine train system. He used to take the train to work from Scranton Pennsylvania to Congress. You can’t do shit like that outside of that region. Like imagine taking a train from Milwaukee to Chicago on a regular basis or from flint to Cleveland. But Philly to NYC? Easy and under $20. It’s good that they’re expanding this, but I do wish any other part of the country got that love. New Jersey has a reasonable passenger rail system that takes you to suburbs. Why don’t more states do that
Canada, with its insane metro sprawls and vastly distributed rural and northern populations, is optimistic about good precedents being set as well.
Not normally a big Biden fan, but honestly the patagonia under a jacket is a good look. We should be writing this down.
Maybe for people who wouldn’t burst into flames immediately.
That’s a coat.
Why aren’t these being paid for with the profits from the business?
Passenger rail, in the places it’s successful, is often seen as a service rather than a profitable private business. Similar to the mail, or the billions of dollars that go towards car infrastructure.
The question shouldn’t be “why aren’t the private entities paying for it” but rather “why do private industries own this?”. Look at the UK: they famously privatized their rail network and it’s gone to shit ever since.
That makes way more sense. If it needs government money to stay afloat, it should be owned by the government.
That way the only people getting paid are the ones doing the work, not the ones who ‘own’ the business.
This is good. Maybe this will lead to the new Acela finally entering service.
They were supposed to enter service in 2021, but they have been in storage all over the north east until Alstom (the manufacturer) is able to fix the hydraulic, and computer issues, along with the outdated infrastructure on the corridor.
I have 2 brand new Acela train sets sitting in the freight yard of my home town. They’ve been there for over 2 months now. I like seeing them, but, they should be running by now.
Woah are we getting some PR marketing on Lemmy for politicians lol that was fast
(OK that’s just in reference to “perhaps the nation’s biggest amtrak fan!” Just lol)
To be fair, “Amtrak Joe” sounds a hell of a lot better than “genocide Joe”
Huh
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.
Yo where that slime mold map at?
I’ve love it, but want way more than 16b. The entire west needs Acelas or better! And new rail lines for passenger rail in places like CO and the cascadia area.
This is good. Maybe this will lead to the new Acela finally entering service.
They were supposed to enter service in 2021, but they have been in storage all over the north east until Alstom (the manufacturer) is able to fix the hydraulic, and computer issues, along with the outdated infrastructure on the corridor.
I have 2 brand new Acela train sets sitting in the freight yard of my home town. They’ve been there for over 2 months now. I like seeing them, but, they should be running by now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_labor_dispute
“Of the railways involved in the dispute, six bargained together, forming the National Carriers Conference Committee. These six were Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, BNSF, Kansas City Southern, and Canadian National. Amtrak and Canadian Pacific bargained separately.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140265413/rail-workers-biden-unions-freight-railroads-averted-strike
“But at this critical moment for our economy, in the holiday season, we cannot let our strongly held conviction for better outcomes for workers deny workers the benefits of the bargain they reached, and hurl this nation into a devastating rail freight shutdown.”
sounds like someone is protecting their railroad bribes
Terrible plan. from an expert in rails: https://mastodon.social/users/Alon/statuses/111363609554111161
Expert? He says that those are ‘things that go against future high-speed rail’. There’s no future high-speed rail in USA. Not unless he’s talking about year 5000. Stopping investment because it goes against projects that USA is simply unable to build doesn’t make much sense.
Spending way too much money on projects is why we can’t build. The best thing to do is starve the beasts making money of of way too expensive projects. If the return on investment isn’t good then the smart thing to do is not invest. If Biden wants to support rail (high speed or otherwise) he needs to reform the systems that make costs too high, not keep funding them.
