Beech Grove Amtrak to get stimulus funds

Star report

Beech Grove's Amtrak repair facility will share $82 million in federal stimulus dollars to help rebuild or repair 68 stored or damaged Amtrak passenger train cars, the White House announced today.

The restoration will be shared with a Delaware repair facility.

In all, the project could mean 125 new jobs.


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Vice President Joe Biden made the announcement today. The overall package: $1.3 billion in grant funding for Amtrak. He was joined by a group of senators and representatives at the announcement, including Rep. Andre Carson, D-Indianapolis.

“Over 28 million passengers ride Amtrak each year. That’s about 500,000 passengers a week – or 80,000 a day,” Biden said in a statement released today.

“For too long, we haven’t made the investments we needed to make Amtrak as safe, as reliable, as secure as it can be. That ends now. The funds in the Recovery Act for Amtrak will help create jobs and at the same time, repair and update critical needs of our nation’s infrastructure.”

The funding will roughly double the size of Amtrak's capital investment.

Many of the damaged cars have been stored at the Beech Grove facility but little work has been done because of lacking funding. Once repaired, the cars will be used to alleviate congested portions of the Amtrak system or to begin new services.