Joe Biden announces recovery plan for cleaner cities

By Candyce Torres, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service. Vice President Joe Biden appears at the Carment Turner Facility Building where he announced a $300 million funding alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles program.

The U.S. on the rail to success

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“In the years I’ve been with the FRA [Federal Railroad Administration], I never thought I’d see the day when a strong and decisive commitment would be made on behalf of Amtrak,” said Jo Strang, the Acting Federal Railroad Administrator at a press conference where Vice President Joe Biden and members of Congress announced that Amtrak would be receiving $1.3 billion in grant funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to expand rail capacity.

Vice President Joe Biden who has been a passenger on Amtrak for over 7,000 round trips said that Amtrak has been neglected in funding. “Amtrak relies on some subsidies. Every, every, every, every passenger rail system in the world relies on subsidies. We subsidize our highways and airports more than we subsidize Amtrak....Amtrak has been left out much too long in my humble opinion,” he stated. Biden also expressed that the $1.3 billion will nearly double Amtrak’s investment program over the next two years. “It is work that will take care of critical, long neglected needs. It will put people to work immediately and it’s an investment of dollars that will not only create jobs now but yield benefits for our economy for years to come. It will begin to build a platform for the economy in the 21st century.”

Amtrak depends on American tax funds and employs more than 19,000 Americans. 500,000 Americans use Amtrak a week, which amounts to 80,000 passengers a day. In the fiscal year of 2008 Amtrak set a record by transporting 28.7 million people, the most in Amtrak’s history.

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) who attended the conference said “We lose about 4.2 billion hours a year to congestion on our roads....We lose close to 3 billion gallons of gasoline, just people sitting there going nowhere in congestion.” Kerry said that this money will help not only Amtrak but it will help better the environment as well. “It’s going to make America more productive. It’s going to make us more environmentally friendly, it’s going to increase the productivity, it’s going to create jobs, and it’s going to create a sustainable economy,” he concluded.

Some of the funding will go towards the replacement of the movable bridge over the Niantic River on the northeast corridor in Connecticut, for repairing damaged passenger cars, repairs to Amtrak facilities nationwide, and construction of a new station for the auto train in Sanford, Florida.