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The White House said Friday that $82 million of federal economic stimulus money would be used to replace 68 old rail cars and put them back into service. The repairs will take place at the Beech Grove Amtrak maintenance facility near Indianapolis and in Bear, Del.
Amtrak plans to hire about 125 workers who have been laid off from jobs at closed manufacturing facilities near the Indiana and Delaware sites.
Indiana Congressman Andre Carson (D-Indianapolis) joined Vice President Joe Biden at a press conference Friday in Washington, D.C., to announce the distribution of the railroad money.
Biden, once a regular rail commuter, said $1.3 billion for Amtrak in the economic stimulus package will go toward long-overdue infrastructure upgrades and expanded passenger rail capacity.
Biden said $105 million will be spent to replace a 102-year-old Connecticut bridge on Amtrak’s heavily traveled Northeast Corridor.
The national passenger railroad, long criticized for its reliance on government subsidies, has strong support from the Obama administration. As senator, Biden commuted for decades between his home in Wilmington, Del., and Washington. And in January, Barack Obama rode the train from Philadelphia to the nation’s capital for his inauguration.
Biden said every passenger rail system in the world relies on subsidies, as do airports and highways, and that for too long Amtrak has been starved for cash.
“I’m tired of apologizing for help for Amtrak,” he said. “It is an absolute national treasure and necessity.”
Biden said money from the federal stimulus package will roughly double the size of Amtrak’s capital investment program over two years. The infusion of cash will help whittle down a maintenance backlog estimated at about $5 billion.
“It’s a darn good slice of [the backlog],” Amtrak chief executive Joseph Boardman said of the stimulus. “It’s something we can make real progress with.”
Boardman said the money will support about 8,000 jobs and will be put to use quickly.
Other improvements include installing better signals that will help prevent train collisions and derailments, and repairs to dozens of aging rail stations, maintenance facilities and warehouses across the country.
Amtrak has posted six years of ridership and revenue growth, due in part to high gasoline and airline prices. The railroad carried a record 28.7 million people last year.
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