(The following appeared on the News Journal website on January 7, 2010.)
WILMINGTON, Del. — Vice President Joe Biden, who commuted on the Amtrak line between Delaware and Washington during his long years in the Senate, is making a case for train travel in America.
In an article appearing in Arrive magazine, an Amtrak publication and also reprinted on the Huffington Post Web site, Biden mentions how he once persuaded Sen. Bob Dole to delay key votes so he could hop on the train to Wilmington, enjoy a quick birthday party with his family at the Amtrak station there and get the next train back to Washington to cast his votes.
“Amtrak doesn’t just carry us from one place to another–it makes things possible that otherwise wouldn’t be. For 36 years, I was able to make most of those birthday parties, to get home to read bedtime stories, to cheer for my children at their soccer games. Simply put, Amtrak gave me–and countless other Americans–more time with my family. That’s worth immeasurably more to me than the fare printed on the ticket,” Biden says in the article.
Perhaps his most famous ride was the trip on Jan. 17, 2009, when Biden rode with President-elect Barack Obama to their inauguration.
(For more information, click here: http://www.arrive-digital.com/arrive/20100102/)