国际英语新闻：Obama continues inaugural tour after Wilmington whistle-stop

WILMINGTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama continued his inaugural train ride on Saturday after making a whistle-stop in Wilmington, Delaware, where he picked up Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

    Both men, together with their families, led a brief ceremony and addressed well-wishers at the Wilmington train station before boarding the train.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (1st L Front), his wife Michelle (1st R Front), Vice President-elect Joe Biden (2nd R Front) and his wife Jill greet supporters at the Wilmington Amtrak station, Delaware, on Jan. 17, 2008. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama continued his inaugural train ride on Saturday after making a whistle-stop in Wilmington, Delaware, where he picked up Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

"We know that America faces its own crossroads -- a nation at war, an economy in turmoil, an American dream that feels like slipping away," Obama told thousands of people who gathered in a riverside park in the back of the train station.

    "The American people are facing an adversity that the time has come to pick up ourselves once again," he told the cheering crowd.

    Obama promised that he and Biden are committed to making the government "accountable not just to the wealthy or to the well-connected," but to the ordinary people who work hard every day to support the nation and their families.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (R) gestures as Vice President-elect Joe Biden (L) and Obama's wife Michelle look on at the Wilmington Amtrak station, Delaware, on Jan. 17, 2009. U.S.

The train station was a daily starting point for Biden, who lives in Wilmingtion, to carry out his duties as a U.S. senator.

    Starting from Philadelphia earlier in the day, Obama's private charter train is also expected to make a stop in Baltimore, Maryland, before winding up in Washington, where the two men will be inaugurated on Tuesday.

    Through the trip, Obama intends to follow the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, who traveled by train in a similar journey to the nation's capital before his 1861 inauguration.