Amtrak Expects Throngs Along Obama's Route

Crowds will line 137 mile rail route to DC
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2009 7:20 AM CST
Amtrak Expects Throngs Along Obama's Route
Barack Obama on a train ride during the presidential campaign.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Crowds of Barack Obama supporters are expected to line the railroad tracks between Philadelphia and Washington when the president-elect retraces Abraham Lincoln's journey to Washington the weekend before his inauguration, the AP reports. Authorities don't know how many people will throng the 137 miles of tracks but are using the funeral procession of Robert Kennedy—which drew an estimated 1 million mourners—as a guide.

Obama will stop in Delaware to collect Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family, and the procession will also stop in Baltimore before making its way to Washington. The private charter train, which will be guarded by thousands of local police officers as it passes through their jurisdictions, will also carry a group of “everyday Americans” who have been invited to the inauguration.
(More President Obama stories.)

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