Vice President Biden Gets Wilmington Amtrak Station Named For Him

Vice President Biden received a huge honor in the world of Amtrak riders on Saturday when the Wilmington Amtrak train station got renamed the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station.

Biden, flanked by his family, told the crowd that "The truth is, I don't deserve this, unless you reward longevity," according to Delawareonline.com. He added: "Everything, good or bad in my career, the first people I encountered were getting on the train. They were the first ones there for me. I mean, literally. They would say, 'Joe, it's going to be OK.' "

Throughout his career, Biden has often talked about the people he met on the trains in the 36 years he rode Amtrak every day from Wilmington to Washington. He even blogged for the Huffington Post about the importance of trains in America.

Along with the renaming ceremony, a new exhibit highlighting the station's heritage also opened (according to Delawareonline.com the Wilmington station is the nation's 12th busiest).

Biden has been the primary point person for the station's renovation, a two-year, $37.7 million refurbishing, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Comments

[Michael T Campbell]

05:58 PM on 03/23/2011

A well deserve honor for him. Good for him.

[jwoww]

03:33 PM on 03/23/2011

a picture says a thousand words... I'm sure the traffic on that platform looks like that everyday.

[sloreader]

12:43 AM on 03/23/2011

If I was Joe Biden I would stake my legacy on revitalizing rail travel in the U.S. Now is the time for building bullet trains and revitalizing commuter rail systems, both for our future and for our children's future. Doing so will generate hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs and we would decrease our dependency on foreign oil with every mile of revitalized track we lay down. It seems like such an obvious win win, but maybe it's just me? I suppose the best we can hope for is for someone like Joe to make it a cause celeb?

[HonkyTonkMan]

11:20 AM on 03/21/2011

Joe Biden rules because he looks like:

1) A founding father

2) A bald eagle

[Jced]

10:07 AM on 03/21/2011

Gee! I think we can have "The George W. Bush LIEberry"!

[Nancy Wyszynski Martin]

10:01 AM on 03/21/2011

I live in Delaware & work in Wilmington...the historic railroad buildings have been a backdrop to my life....they have lots of history that doesn't involve Joe Biden and that does involve others.
I would have preferred that the station was NOT named after him.

[Jced]

10:08 AM on 03/21/2011

Well!!! To bad!

[TechYes]

09:37 AM on 03/21/2011

Great story, and very appropriate. Joe Biden used Amtrak daily for his commute back and forth to Washington and has been a big promoter of railroads in the U.S. Nice to see Amtrak's Wilmington Station honoring its most famous passenger. Way to go, Amtrak; way to go Joe! We love ya, man!

[kenrynne]

12:03 AM on 03/21/2011

And the rooftop of the parking garage will be the CHRISTINE O'DONNELL BROOM PORT

[DUSAA-1775]

10:07 PM on 03/20/2011

Well good for Joey !! After a two year renovating costing $37.7 million.... $5.7 more than the original budget. And of course, after the stimulus watchdog,, Sheriff Biden funneled $20 million to the station, Amtrak decides to rename the station after him.

[SparkyDash]

09:10 PM on 03/20/2011

Awesome...Go Joe!

[OhManOhMan]

09:05 PM on 03/20/2011

Biden is right, he doesn't deserved a station named after him.

That should go to somebody who is really dedicated to the community.

[BravoFoxtrotDelta]

09:16 PM on 03/20/2011

Don't you have a puppy to kick?

[justitia]

09:29 PM on 03/20/2011

Yeah, like Shotgun Dick Cheney?

[Leadsled]

08:46 PM on 03/20/2011

"Biden has been the primary point person for the station's renovation, a two-year, $37.7 refurbishing,"

I was not aware you could even buy signs that said "Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station" for only $37.7. And people say the government is inefficient? They renovated a train station for under forty dollars? My weekly grocery bill is more than that. How is this not a bigger story? I mean, someone should get a nobel prize in economics or something for this. Either that, or, they spray painted 1 wall of the building and called it a "renovation". One way or the other I think Huffpo missed the larger story here.

[DFL]

04:55 PM on 03/20/2011

Great name for that station! and I just wish Washington National airport was named after someone better like Martin Luther King or William Jefferson Clinton!

[Xylem44]

04:50 PM on 03/20/2011

"a two-year, $37.7 refurbishing"... millions?....thousand? Dollars? What is it?

[Tom95134]

02:15 PM on 03/20/2011

It makes more sense that "Reagan National Airport". Biden rode Amtrak often and was in that station many time. I suspect that President Reagan was never in Washington National Airport.