President-elect Obama is paying tribute to Lincoln's journey to Washington:
On Jan. 17, Obama and his family will start the day with an appearance in Philadelphia, where they will board a chartered Amtrak train. The train will stop in Wilmington, Del., where the Obamas will be joined by Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Then comes a stop in Baltimore before the group's arrival that evening in Washington.
"He's replicating the last leg of Lincoln's inaugural journey to Washington," said historian Harold Holzer, author of "Lincoln President Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861." "This guy's reverence for Lincoln has no bounds."
Now if only we could get a train here in Reading. Sadly, there hasn't been commuter rail here for many, many years and re-establishing the line connecting Reading to Philadelphia has been discussed without actual results for as long as I can remember.
Ultimately, there's no reason why towns the size of Reading (SMSA 125) shouldn't be interconnected with commuter rail lines. The debate has been mostly about federal vs. state funds and Pennsylvania has been demanding that Washington pay for up to 80 percent of the $2 billion budget.