Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy hailed Amtrak’s new train, marking the United States’s 250th anniversary, as it embarks on a trip to Philadelphia on Thursday. 

Duffy was on hand at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station when the “Freedom 250” Acela train was unveiled, and waved aboard a stream of fourth graders onto the carrier. The children grasped American flags and “Freedom Train” tickets as they boarded the patriotic train, wrapped in red, white, and blue,  “to see where the American story began” in Philadelphia.