The Curious Case of the Wilmington Acela

[Geee]

National Review

There’s no practical reason for the president’s tiny hometown to be a stop on Amtrak’s flagship high-speed-rail line.

 

It ought to surprise no one that President Biden would propose a major increase in funding for the Amtrak passenger-rail system, despite the system’s well-documented inefficiencies. Long known as “Amtrak Joe” for his regular train commute from Washington to his home in Wilmington, Del., Biden has now signed on to a bipartisan infrastructure deal that promises “the biggest investment in rail since the creation of Amtrak.” Yet even amid a restructuring process that began in 2017, the system still lost $75 million in 2018 and $30 million in 2019. (The numbers for pandemic-ravaged 2020 will, one imagines, be even worse.)