'Amtrak Joe' praises African rail project on Angola trip

Even in the waning days of his presidency and thousands of miles from home, US president Joe Biden is finding ways to celebrate trains.

- WILL WEISSERT

Mr Biden is using his third and final day in Angola to showcase the Lobito Corridor railway, where the US and key allies are investing heavily to refurbish 800 miles (1,300 kilometres) of train lines in Zambia, Congo and Angola.

The project aims to advance the US 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,” Mr Biden, the first US president to visit Angola, said during a speech on Tuesday evening. He has long had the nickname Amtrak Joe for the 36 years he spent commuting by US train from his home in Delaware to Washington while in the Senate. He said the Lobito Corridor constituted the largest US investment in a train project outside the country.