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.
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.