Obama to take inaugural train journey

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will travel by train from Philadelphia to Washington before his Jan. 20 inauguration, officials said Monday.

The Sat., Jan. 17, train trip along Northeast corridor commuter tracks will also allow for a Wilmington, Del., pick-up of Vice President-elect Joe Biden. The rail journey is designed to give Americans who can't attend the inauguration a chance to glimpse Obama along the route, The Washington Post reported.

Emmett Beliveau, executive director of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, said the train's route is a recreation of the one taken by another Illinois senator, Abraham Lincoln, en route from Springfield, Ill., to his own presidential inauguration in 1861.

"These events will allow us to (let more people see Obama) while honoring the rich history and tradition of previous inaugural journeys," Beliveau told the newspaper.