00:00Thank you, Tony, and I appreciate your leadership.
00:04You have done a fantastic job.
00:06It is a great day for and a celebration, right?
00:12By the way, I don't know who ordered it up, but the sun is shining, the sky is blue,
00:17the band is here, it's a wonderful day for this launch.
00:24Again, I think the president has been pretty clear on what he wants for Union Station, for
00:30American travel, for train travel.
00:33He wants Union Station to be beautiful again.
00:36He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation's capital to be great again.
00:42And today is part of that.
00:46Listen, I've had the opportunity, like many of you multiple times, to ride the old Acela
00:53again, and I think we'd all agree it was showing its age.
00:57And if you've taken a tour of the new trains, they're beautiful.
01:03They're going to be faster.
01:05We're going to have not 15 trains, we're going to have 28 trains, so we're going to be able
01:08to carry more people on these trains, which hopefully means better pricing, it's going
01:15to mean better revenue, but most importantly, a better experience for the traveling public.
01:20And again, that's what we do.
01:21We serve the American people with great experiences, and that's what this is about today.
01:26So I am completely honored to be here.
01:29Again, would I like to have us a little further off the federal dollar and dime?
01:37Yes.
01:38I think, as Tony mentioned, this is going to bring us a little bit closer to that goal.
01:43Again, I would love to see high-speed rail in America.
01:48I don't think it should just be China, Europe, Japan, others that have high-speed rail.
01:53I think America deserves high-speed rail.
01:58This is, at 160 miles an hour, one great step in that process.
02:03But again, this administration, this DOT, wants to make those investments to make travel safe,
02:10efficient, and faster.
02:12And so I'm excited to be here at this time for this historic announcement.
02:17I also want to talk about Union Station.
02:21If you've heard the president and you've followed DC news, the president has been very concerned
02:27about crime in our nation's capital.
02:29He wants a capital that is worthy of the greatest country that's ever existed on the face of
02:34the earth, which means a capital that's clean, a capital that's safe, and a capital that doesn't
02:40have its parks overtaken by homelessness.
02:45And so we look at our equities.
02:47We are going to partner and invest in the streets of this city.
02:51But today, we are going to look at Union Station.
02:57Union Station is, frankly, owned by DOT.
03:00We are going to take DOT from our partners back under DOT control.
03:05And we are going to make the investments to make sure that this station isn't dirty, that
03:11we don't have homelessness in Union Station.
03:16We want a place where businesses want to obtain leases and set up shop and serve the community
03:23of DC, but also the people that travel into DC via train.
03:29But also, we want just, if you're out, you want to go for a great meal.
03:34You want to go shopping.
03:35You want to come to Union Station because it's gorgeous.
03:38It's beautiful.
03:39It's safe.
03:40It's a great experience.
03:41That's what we want to do for Union Station.
03:44So today, we're announcing that we're going to take Union Station back under DOT control.
03:49Not a power play.
03:50We've always had it.
03:51But we think that we can manage the property better, bring in more tenants, bring in more
03:57revenue.
03:58And that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building.
04:03It needs investments.
04:04It's been, I think, neglected for decades.
04:06And it's shown its age.
04:08And again, we want to make this place beautiful and the premier train station not just in America,
04:15but the premier train station in the world.
04:17And that takes money.
04:18And again, it's this reform that's going to help us make that happen.
04:22And again, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about what's happened with regard to the last
04:29couple of weeks in D.C.
04:31Robberies, they're down 52 percent.
04:33Carjackings, they're down 38 percent.
04:36Violent crime across the board is down by 40 percent.
04:41All of us, if you have kids, you want to be able to move throughout this city without
04:47being in fear for your safety or your life.
04:49And I appreciate the president driving these policies that are going to change the way people
04:55can live and move and feel safe in this community.
04:58And we're going to do our part to make sure that people feel safe at Union Station, especially
05:04those who are then going to move through Union Station and have a great experience on these
05:08new acellas.
05:10I want to take a quick moment and thank our FRA team, who has done a fantastic job.
05:21I never thought I'd know so much about trains or care so much about trains, but we have
05:25a passionate team who care about making sure people move faster, safer, and more efficiently
05:35through our system.
05:36But the leader of our team that's truly grabbed these issues is our Deputy Secretary, Steve
05:43Bradbury, who's going to come up and speak as well.
05:45But he has taken the lead for DOT.
05:48He's had great vision and has been a great partner.
05:52And a lot of what's happening wouldn't be taking place without his vision and leadership
05:57and partnership at DOT.
05:58So Steve, I want to thank you for all that you've done to make today happen.
06:02I want to thank you all for coming out.
06:04I hope that as we celebrate today, and I love the signs and the fanfare and the excitement
06:08around this.
06:09It's wonderful.
06:10We should have more experiences like this, American experiences like this.
06:15Because I want people to have a choice.
06:20I want their air travel to be less delayed or less canceled.
06:23We're on the way to that, by the way.
06:25Give me some time.
06:26Hopefully, next summer is going to be better than this summer.
06:28I want less congestion on our streets.
06:30But I want people who say, you know what, I don't want to fly to New York.
06:34I don't want to drive to New York.
06:36I want to take the train to New York to have a great, awesome option on these trains to
06:41make that choice.
06:42And again, it's about allowing Americans to choose their mode of travel.
06:49And again, what we're doing here is, again, I think opening up a lot of options for the
06:54American people to travel differently, travel by train.
06:58And so I'm excited.
06:59I couldn't be more honored that the president gave me this position at DOT.
07:02I'm just going to tell you, I think he gave me the best job in all the cabinet.
07:06Some of the other cabinet members may disagree with that.
07:07But I think I've got the best job, and I think we impact people's lives.
07:12How people move, how quickly they move, how delayed they are, how safe they are impacts
07:18their lives.
07:19Do they get home for dinner?
07:21Are they late to dinner?
07:22Do they tuck their kids in for bed?
07:23Do they make the business meeting?
07:25All of our work together truly impacts the way people live and experience their families,
07:31their communities, and how effective they are at their jobs.
07:33So I want to thank you all for all of your hard work, your efforts, and again, exciting
07:39days that we want this not to be the first and last.
07:42We want this to be the first of many great announcements that we make that's going to
07:46make travel and train travel great again in America.
07:51So thank you all for coming out.
07:52God bless and honored to be your secretary.
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