--- title: Donald Trump Agrees With Democrats on High-Speed Trains description: "We have trains that go chug ... chug ... chug." canonical: https://time.com/4247162/donald-trump-trains-infrastructure/ author: Haley Sweetland Edwards article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-04T02:09:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:26.006Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Agrees With Democrats on High-Speed Trains og:description: "We have trains that go chug ... chug ... chug." og:url: https://time.com/4247162/donald-trump-trains-infrastructure/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57dd0fda96c2eadb/69888033196cf4b70d03a9e8/trains-high-speed-donald-trump-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4323 og:image:height: 2432 og:image:alt: Testing of the Amtrak Acela high-speed train in Pueblo, Colorado, before it was put into service on og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Agrees With Democrats on High-Speed Trains twitter:description: "We have trains that go chug ... chug ... chug." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57dd0fda96c2eadb/69888033196cf4b70d03a9e8/trains-high-speed-donald-trump-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Agrees With Democrats on High-Speed Trains > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Mar 4, 2016 2:09 AM UTC  An Amtrak Acela high-speed train is tested in Pueblo, Colo. An Amtrak Acela high-speed train is tested in Pueblo, Colo. Carol M. Highsmith—Buyenlarge/Getty Images  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Mar 4, 2016 2:09 AM UTC In a [freewheeling speech](http://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/) Thursday afternoon, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump stumbled into a riff about how great trains are. It’s sad, he said, that the American rail system is so dilapidated while China’s is now slicker than ever. “They have trains that go 300 miles per hour,” the populist billionaire exclaimed. “We have trains that go chug … chug … chug.” The line got a laugh—it’s not often that one sees a presidential candidate imitate Thomas the Tank Engine—but it also underscored one of the most solid planks in the billionaire businessman’s [rickety policy platform](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/donald-trump-believe-candidate-stands-10-issues/): to fund and rebuild U.S. infrastructure, including its crumbling railways. The thing is, that’s usually a Democratic talking point. President Obama spent the better part of his second term pushing for a $478 billion infrastructure bill to fund roads, bridges, and rail lines. Before that, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who at one point practically [moonlighted as Amtrak’s spokesman,](http://history.amtrak.com/amtraks-history/2000s) pushed a new U.S. Department of Transportation initiative awarding [$8 billion to states to build new high-speed intercity rail](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-vice-president-biden-announce-8-billion-high-speed-rail-projects-ac). “\[T\]here’s no reason why Europe or China should have the fastest trains when we can build them right here in America,” Obama announced in a 2010 statement. “By investing in high speed rail, we’re doing so many good things for our country at the same time,” Biden added. We’re creating good construction and manufacturing jobs in the near-term; we’re spurring economic development in the future; we’re making our communities more livable—and we’re doing it all while decreasing America’s environmental impact and increasing America’s ability to compete in the world.” Trump’s language, six years later, is nearly identical. “Our airports, bridges, water tunnels, power grids, rail systems—our nation’s entire infrastructure is crumbling, and we aren’t doing anything about it,” he wrote in his [2015 book](http://books.simonandschuster.com/Crippled-America/Donald-J-Trump/9781501137969), _Crippled America_. He went on to promise that fixing it would[ spur economic growth.](http://abcnews.go.com/US/book-excerpt-donald-trumps-crippled-america-make-america/story?id=34931608) “These projects put people to work—not just the people doing the work but also the manufacturers, the suppliers, the designers, and, yes, even the lawyers. The Senate Budget Committee estimates that rebuilding America will create 13 million jobs,” he wrote. Which, incidentally, was Obama’s point in 2011, when Congressional Republicans blocked his [$60 billion infrastructure jobs](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-blocks-60-billion-infrastructure-plan/2011/11/03/gIQACXjajM%5Fstory.html) bill. Republicans have generally fought efforts to increase federal spending on principle. That includes vast infrastructure projects, even popular ones. In the hours after the deadly Amtrak derailment in May 2015, for example, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to slash the rail budget by 20%. In December, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate joined to pass a less sweeping $305 billion version of the infrastructure package. But both of Trump’s top rivals for the Republican nomination, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, voted no on the bill. In a nod to the fiscal conservative tradition of the Republican Party, Trump has admitted that rebuilding American infrastructure would cost taxpayer dollars. But then waved away the concern with Trumpian bravado. “On the federal level, this is going to be an expensive investment, no question about that. But in the long run it will more than pay for itself,” he said. “It will stimulate our economy while it is being built and make it a lot easier to do business when it’s done—and it can be done on time and under budget.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4247162/donald-trump-trains-infrastructure/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4247162/donald-trump-trains-infrastructure/"},"headline":"Trump Agrees With Democrats on High-Speed Trains","datePublished":"2016-03-04T02:09:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:26.006Z","description":"\"We have trains that go chug ... chug ... chug.\"","url":"https://time.com/4247162/donald-trump-trains-infrastructure/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","Barack Obama","Joe Biden","Transportation","Infrastructure"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57dd0fda96c2eadb/69888033196cf4b70d03a9e8/trains-high-speed-donald-trump-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Haley Sweetland Edwards","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57dd0fda96c2eadb/69888033196cf4b70d03a9e8/trains-high-speed-donald-trump-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Testing of the Amtrak Acela high-speed train in Pueblo, Colorado, before it was put into service on","caption":"An Amtrak Acela high-speed train is tested in Pueblo, Colo.","creditText":"Carol M. 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