‘Amtrak Joe’: Will Biden’s infrastructure plan revive railroads?

US President Joe Biden wants to spend big on upgrading the nation’s rail system, but critics say some of the proposals are wasteful ‘train envy’.

During the 36 years he served as a senator in Washington, DC, United States President Joe Biden famously commuted 90 minutes each way every day on an Amtrak train from his home in a suburb of Wilmington, Delaware. He knows the zigs and zags of the US rail system perhaps better than anyone else who has sat in the Oval Office. Not surprisingly, Amtrak is thrilled with the $80bn train ambitions the White House recently unveiled. But some transportation experts say Biden’s American Jobs Plan – a blueprint for reviving the nation’s infrastructure, including its railroads –  is underwhelming and misguided.