'Amtrak Joe' Biden uses his visit to Angola to promote a major African rail project
President Joe Biden is finding ways to celebrate trains in the waning days of his presidency thousands of miles from home
LUANDA, Angola — Even in the waning days of his presidency and thousands of miles from home, U.S. President Joe Biden is finding ways to celebrate trains.
Biden is using his third and final day in Angola to showcase the Lobito Corridor railway, where the U.S. and key allies are investing heavily to refurbish 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of train lines in Zambia, Congo and Angola.
The project aims to advance the U.S. presence in a region rich in cobalt, copper and other critical minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies. By the end of the decade, the rail line could even go a long way toward linking southern Africa's western coast with the continent's eastern edge.
“I’m probably the most pro-rail guy in America,” Biden, the first U.S. president to visit Angola, said during a speech Tuesday evening.
Biden has long had the nickname Amtrak Joe for the 36 years he spent commuting by U.S. train from his home in Delaware to Washington while in the Senate. He said the Lobito Corridor constituted the largest U.S. investment in a train project outside the country.
On Wednesday, Biden will fly from the capital of Luanda to Lobito on Africa's western coast to tour port facilities with Angolan President João Lourenço, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Tanzanian Vice President Philip Mpango.
The leaders also plan to meet with representatives from companies that stand to benefit from the corridor project, including a telecommunication firm expanding cell service in the region, a food-production firm and Acrow
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