During his recent trip to Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the United States will help the city of Lima in building a new passenger train line that will expand access to reliable and affordable transportation for over 200,000 people daily.
“The United States will support the City of Lima as it develops the new passenger train line that’s going to connect downtown to the eastern suburbs. The Caltrain rail system in California ... will contribute more than a hundred high-quality railcars and engines, and American companies will provide over 50 percent of the services for this project and the supplies for the project, from signaling equipment to railroad tracks to engineering and design expertise.”
“[T]he trains will also cut greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 20,000 metric tons every year. That’s the equivalent of taking 4,000 cars off the roads,” said Secretary Blinken.
“This collaboration between us seeks to address challenges that are facing cities across our hemisphere: aging infrastructure; a shortage of affordable, efficient public transportation; congested streets; rising pollution.”
The State Department created the Office of Subnational Diplomacy back in 2022 to foster more efforts like this rail project, noted Secretary Blinken. As a result, over the last two years, the State Department has engaged with more than 5,000 mayors, governors, and other leaders in tackling issues that matter most to the people at the local level.
A case in point is the newly developed partnership between the Port of Hueneme in California and the Port of Paita in Peru, explained Secretary Blinken:
“Their collaboration will help us grow our trade relationship, advance economic development in these regions, and find ways to make our ports and shipping industries more effective, more secure, [and] more sustainable.”
“At its heart,” said Secretary Blinken, “any government initiative is about the people that we’re here to serve and who will benefit from it. ... With each project, with each partnership, with each connection that we build between the leaders of our countries, at every level, we will build a more prosperous, more secure, a better future for all of the people that we have the privilege of representing.”
