Rail Passengers at groundbreaking for new Amtrak facility

For Immediate Release (24-10)
Contact: Joe Aiello ([email protected])

Rail Passengers welcomes groundbreaking for Amtrak’s new Philadelphia coach yard heavy maintenance facility

PHILADELPHIA – Jim Mathews, President and CEO of Rail Passengers, today took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for Amtrak’s new heavy maintenance facility at the Penn Coach Yard, delivering the following remarks to industry leaders, elected officials, and advocates at the site:

“I’m thrilled to celebrate here with you today on behalf of our Rail Passengers Association’s 127,000 members, donors, and supporters around the country.

For 57 years, our Association has been telling the story of passenger rail… Mobilizing a grassroots network of rail advocates, who work together to improve and expand intercity and regional passenger train services of all kinds. We do it because rail is an economic engine, making communities safer, more accessible, and more productive. Trains make lives better and richer…for everyone who lives, works, studies, and plays all across America. That’s what we’re celebrating here today.

America’s passengers have been waiting for many decades to see this kind of long-overdue investment in the future of our rail network. Thanks to Amtrak contracting with Herzog to build this new heavy maintenance facility…the trains we ride are going to be cleaner…safer…and more reliable. It’s yet another example of the visionary Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s historic funding levels making a genuine, visible, meaningful difference in the experience of the fare-paying public.

The fact that we’re here today shows that our country already has a lot of what it takes to build and deliver the next rail revolution. America’s passengers are proud to see it taking shape! So congratulations and thank you to the Biden-Harris administration, to Congress, to the FRA, to Amtrak, and to its industrial partners.”

Maintenance like this is essential to a modern and comfortable experience for America’s rail passengers, and Rail Passengers looks forward to improved maintenance for trains serving the busy Northeast Corridor, which carried more than 12 million riders in fiscal year 2023.

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About the Rail Passengers Association:

The Rail Passengers Association is the oldest and largest national organization serving as a voice for the more than 40 million rail passengers in the U.S. Our mission is to improve and expand conventional intercity and regional passenger train services, support higher speed rail initiatives, increase connectivity among all forms of transportation, and ensure safety for our country's trains and passengers. All of this makes communities safer, more accessible, and more productive, improving the lives of everyone who lives, works, and plays in towns all across America.