“Amtrak Joe” Biden Plans to Keep Riding the Rails

Joe Biden has never much cared for Washington in the socializing, living-there kind of way.

So, he and his wife, Jill, will be more like part-time residents of the brick Victorian vice presidential home at the Naval Observatory than Second Families before them, aides say.

“They expect to return home frequently on weekends, taking Amtrak whenever they can,” said Biden spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander.

The Bidens’ relationship with Washington is shaping up to be of the one-foot-in, one-foot-out sort. Joe and Jill Biden seem intent on shaping their new roles to fit their lifestyle however they can, rather than having the traditions of the vice presidency mold them.

As part of her husband’s transition, Jill Biden, who teaches English at a Delaware community college, will move her career to DC. But after entertaining offers from some no-doubt prestigious four-year schools in the Washington area, she’s decided to select a community college as her new workplace. (She’s still determining which one, Alexander said.)

Even the Secret Service has had to adjust – staffing Amtrak trips and erecting “guard shacks” at Biden’s Delaware home to handle security during his frequent return visits, as the vice president-elect told a Delaware newspaper in an interview published this week.

Unlike previous vice presidential families, the Bidens have the luxury of remaining Washington commuters because their home state is so close.

And Joe Biden’s affection for Delaware is legendary.

It’s a sentiment he took to a new level during his interview with the local paper, deeming his election to a seventh Senate term in the state "the biggest thing in my life," more momentous even than the vice presidency.

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