Fitting tribute for Lautenberg

SECAUCUS, N.J. -- It's only fitting that a man remembered as Mr. Transportation took his final trip to Washington aboard an Amtrak train yesterday.

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) was remembered at his funeral at a Manhattan synagogue by admirers including Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and several of Lautenberg's children and grandchildren. They spoke of his drive to fight for what he believed, whether on the Senate floor or around the dinner table, up until his death Monday at 89 of complications from viral pneumonia.

"He never quit anything. He never gave up. He never gave in," Biden told the 1,100 mourners.

Perhaps Lautenberg's chief cause was mass transit, for which he worked to secure hundreds of millions of dollars during his 30 years in two stints in the Senate. He spearheaded legislation that revitalized a beleaguered Amtrak and other passenger rail systems, authorizing them money to increase high-speed rail and other initiatives.

"If it wasn't for Frank, Amtrak wouldn't be what it is today. That's not an exaggeration," Biden said.

Lautenberg's coffin was sent after the service to Washington via the Northeast Corridor rail tracks he fought for years to upgrade, and his body will lie in repose in the Senate chamber. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Noting that he himself made more than 8,000 Amtrak trips as a senator, Biden said that he once rushed from the Senate to catch the train, only to have a conductor tell him, "It's OK -- we're holding it for Lautenberg," Biden said to laughs.

After the funeral, Lautenberg's body was taken to Secaucus' Frank R. Lautenberg Secaucus Junction Station, which Congress voted to name for him in 2000. A brief ceremony in the station's rotunda honored him, and then an honor guard of police officers, bagpipers and drummers escorted the coffin to a platform.

Besides trains, Lautenberg also worked to change the nation's highways and airports.

He sponsored legislation increasing the drinking age to 21 and threatened to withhold federal highway funding from states that did not comply. He was also the driving force behind the law that banned smoking on most U.S. flights.