‘Amtrak Joe’ may come by train for his inauguration

It would be a fitting moment for a man who has made about 8,000 rounds on the same track during his time as senator and vice president – who received the moniker “Amtrak Joe” – and who left Washington four years ago on his last day as vice president.

One of the many projects being discussed for the January celebration is Biden’s inauguration committee watching a train arrival, Democrats familiar with the program told CNN. Project, First announced By Axios, not finalized, and there is great uncertainty in all the initial plans given by the corona virus infection, Democrats warned. A spokesman for Biden’s presidential inaugural committee declined to comment.

Biden’s deep ties with Amtrak and Railroad Hark in his early days in the U.S. Senate. After losing his wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972, Biden rode to and from Washington almost every day to help raise his sons Hunter and Pew. Biden became one of the largest supporters of the railroad system on Capitol Hill, and as vice president continued to take the train to Wilmington.

The approximately 90-minute ride between Wilmington and D.C. was so central to Biden’s story that the then senator began his first presidential campaign in 1987 at his own train station.

“Amtrak does not take us from one place to another – it makes possible things that would not otherwise be possible,” Biden wrote in a 2010 article. Amtrak’s Visit Magazine. “For 36 years, I ‘ve been able to do most of those birthday parties, go home to read bedtime stories, and cheer my kids on at their football games. Simply put, Amtrak has given me – and countless other Americans – more time with my family.”

He continued, “This is more valuable to me than the fee printed on the ticket.”

When he began his travels in the 1970s, Biden was a somewhat anonymous senator. But in the eight years he has been vice president, whenever he returns by train he will be surrounded by secret service and his reservation for security reasons will remain anonymous.

In 2009, he was elected President Barack Obama In an attempt to reflect on a similar voyage made by Abraham Lincoln, he traveled by train from Philadelphia to DC, and Biden boarded the ship at Wilmington for the final legs of the voyage.

“You don’t have to do your daily commute every day with the next president of the United States,” Biden said at the Baltimore stop. “Everybody, this’s more than just a normal train journey.

Amtrak Wilmington, renamed Delaware “Station with Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad” In 2011 to honor the then Vice President.

Surrounded by his family at the dedication ceremony, Biden said, “Actually, all the good or bad that happened in my life, the first people I met were on the train, and the people who work at Amtrak would warm me up. . “

The trip back to Washington in January will be a full circle moment for Biden, who left Washington in 2017. Donald Trump Kept open.

“I did – they actually counted it, the conductors – 8,200 trips, over 2 million miles on Amtrak,” Biden told CNN in an interview. “Traveling two hundred and fifty-nine miles a day, not every day, but an average of 217 days a year. This is my family, which is why I wanted to go home the way I came.”

“Full circle,” Jill Biden interrupted.

“The whole circle,” Joe Biden said.

At the time, it was unknown whether Biden would return to Washington in any selected role. As vice president, he Refused to run For the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, a decision was made in 2015 due to the death of his son Beau Biden. Came to an end. Although talks about another presidential election continued among longtime Biden believers, there was a feeling among Democrats that he had left.
Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, are speaking with families invited on the Amtrak train on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, which leads to the Ohio Alliance.

However, those Democrats were proven wrong, and Biden began his third and final successful attempt in 2019. On the day he announced his candidacy, Biden took a train from Washington to Wilmington. After the first presidential debate in September, he campaigned by train through eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

During his final train journey as vice president in 2017, Biden said riding the rails was a reminder that his success and life were more political.

“What I did, really, was you ride here at night on the way home, you look out, you look out the windows, you look at the lights and I’m really telling you, what’s going on in that kitchen table,” Biden told CNN, Gestured. “What are people thinking about, and what are their real concerns?”

When Biden arrived in Delaware that day, he was greeted by a hero: a parade band, friends and family, and a rally he stopped in tears.

“You were successful with me,” Biden said at the end of his speech. “You were with me in failure. You all stayed with me.”

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