Biden Amtrak Video Plays at DNC as Trump Calls for Budget Cuts

A video highlighting Joe Biden's longtime use of Amtrak trains shown during the Democratic National Convention on Monday stands in contrast to President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts to the service, Newsweek reports.

The clip features several Amtrak workers talking about frequently seeing Biden, who rode the train from Delaware to Washington, D.C. for years after his election to the Senate, and praising him for treating them like "important people."

"Amtrak video tonight was easily best ad segment tonight," tweeted Republican political consultant Mike Murphy. "Told people who Biden really is in a credible way. Big Needle-mover."

Newsweek notes that although the coronavirus pandemic caused Amtrak ridership to drop by about 95%, prior to the pandemic, Trump proposed cutting Amtrak's funding by more than 50%, with the Northeast Corridor's funding dropping from $700 billion to $325 million, and long-distance train routes' funding dropping from $1.3 billion to $611 million.

Amtrak President and CEO Bill Flynn wrote in a memo to employees in May that "an essential adjustment we must make ... is to reduce our workforce by up to 20%. This reduction is necessary to ensure we have a sustainable Amtrak that can continue to make critical investments in our core and long-term growth strategies, while also keeping safety as our top priority.

"We are currently working to finalize a plan for achieving these workforce reductions," he added. "We understand that this activity will cause stress in the organization."

"Amtrak is putting 20 percent of its workers on the chopping block to be furloughed and has plans to drastically reduce long-distance services. The company is using the Covid-19 pandemic to cut or suspend service on many of its routes across the country — with the intention of making them permanent," the TWU Railroad Division union, which represents Amtrak workers, said in a statement in June.

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