Biden: $2.45B Loan for Amtrak Upgrades in Northeast Corridor

By RANDALL CHASE, ASSOCIATED PRESS WILMINGTON, Del. — Aug 26, 2016, 5:54 PM ET

Amtrak is receiving a $2.45 billion loan from the federal government to buy new trains, upgrade tracks and make platform improvements along the busy Northeast corridor, the largest such loan ever by the Department of Transportation, officials announced Friday.

Vice President Joe Biden, a champion of Amtrak who rode the corridor's trains almost daily during his more than three decades in the Senate, joined Amtrak officials and deputy transportation secretary Victor Mendez in making the announcement at the Wilmington, Delaware, station named for Biden.

"You can't make this country work without rail ... This is a really, really sound investment, Biden said.

Terms of the loan were not immediately available, but Amtrak said the money would be repaid through growth in revenues from Northeast Corridor operations.

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