United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 3 Number 20

1. This is the fifth and last in a series of special editions of This Week at Amtrak concerning a report by a bi-partisan forum of congressmen known as the Amtrak Working Group, led by Congressman Richard Baker of Louisiana. In March, this group issued the most important government document regarding Amtrak since the final report of the Amtrak Reform Council was issued in December of 2002 by Chairman Gil Carmichael and his blue ribbon panel. The title of the AWG report is “Amtrak in the 21st Century.”
2. Amtrak Chairman of the Board David Laney was quoted in a news article earlier this year saying a new President and CEO of Amtrak would likely be named in mid-May, which is only days away. We do know a well-known, international search firm was engaged to handle the search, and a number of respected candidates are part of the process. As this week marks the 35th anniversary of the start of Amtrak operations, we eagerly await the naming of a new chief for Amtrak.Whoever the new chief is, the Amtrak Working Group report has clearly outlined much of a full agenda of change which needs to be completed. In the past few months, we also know change has begun at Amtrak, under the combined leadership of Mr. Laney and Acting President David Hughes. Mr. Hughes has left a favorable impression wherever he has gone, helping boost employee morale and not hesitating to make needed changes. All of this process has been good, and long overdue.

   In the both immediate and far past, most of these problems delineated by the AWG have been overlooked or intentionally ignored. There has been the constant, ill-bred chant of “more money” for Amtrak that would somehow solve all of these problems. We knew before, and we empirically know now, more money has not been the solution. Better management, better stewardship of the company, and a better partnership with the American taxpayer have been the answers all along.

   Immediate past Amtrak President David Gunn and his immense ego, thankfully decamped to his home in Nova Scotia, did little in the long run to address these problems. His still continuing public declarations the Bush Administration wants to kill Amtrak are both wrong, and unhelpful to the overall survival of Amtrak. Many of these problems were at their height during the Clinton Administration, and nothing was done to correct the problems; in fact, most of what was done by the Amtrak Board of Directors appointed during the Clinton years only exacerbated the problems and led to even more financial disasters for the company. The Bush appointed board has had to spend an inordinate amount of time just untangling the mess it inherited from the Clinton appointed board.

   The AWG report addressed a number of issues, from fraudulent financial reporting to rampant non-bid contracts resulting in gross overpaying for goods and services, to plain glaring incompetence. The next president of the company will have to continue to deal with all of these issues to work to bring the company under control.

   Part of that process needs to be a complete housecleaning of the management ranks of Amtrak. Whether by fault or fate, for many of the managers in place now, a new administration needs to continue to work to bring in a completely new team that will invigorate the company and weed out those managers and executives that are performing their jobs by rote and “because we’ve always done it that way.”

3. A huge task facing the next Amtrak president will be the educating of the public, government, and press about Amtrak. For too long, Amtrak has been perceived as a sobbing nightmare that has constantly begged at the public door for crumbs and handouts. This has become reality in many minds, and has completely fogged the potential of Amtrak.Amtrak has been good at lowering expectations of passenger service and utility. The opposite should be true. Amtrak needs the traveling public more than it needs government handouts. David Laney and David Hughes have aptly demonstrated this federal budget cycle how to properly apply and work towards the receipt of free federal monies without high drama and threats of holding their collective breaths until they turn blue. They have also demonstrated that with the beginning of internal reforms, they have requested lower cash operating assistance than in the prior year. This is how it is done professionally, and without damaging the company image in the mind of the traveling public.

   Government, too, is looking at Amtrak differently. No longer is the federal government willing to hand Amtrak hundreds of millions of dollars without accountability. A generous government is saying “yes, you can have the money, but now you have to tell us how you’re spending it.” That is a huge improvement over the past.

   The press still presents a problem. There are few national or local level reporters who completely understand the business of passenger rail. Instead of doing enterprise reporting, they have often relied on Amtrak’s corporate communications department, which has sung its own song (as it should), and relied on uninformed statements from National Association of Railroad Passengers Executive Director Ross Capon, who has incorrectly been held out as an expert on the business of passenger rail. As a result of this, little overall correct information has been given to the reading public, especially since Amtrak’s and NARP’s press positions have been almost identical, with NARP abdicating its responsibility as a separate, non-profit organization from Amtrak in return for favors and accessibility inside of the company.

4. Beyond the fallacies of NARP, both liberal and conservative interest groups have often been on the wrong roads, too. Liberals have been too willing to overlook Amtrak’s real problems and simply call for more money for the railroad. Conservative groups have been too willing to overlook real potential and simply call for an end to Amtrak. When reality interferes with these two concepts, obviously some middle ground between the two extremes is the actual answer in the long run.
5. There has also been a chorus of former Amtrak insiders on several levels, which have become strong opponents to the company, each with their own agendas. What has prompted this? While True Believers of Amtrak have merely attempted to brush these voices aside when they interfere with their fantasies, no one has stopped to consider the source of the discontent of the voices. The answer is simple. These people (including this writer) have been on the inside of Amtrak and have seen firsthand both what is good and bad about the company. From a highly frustrating point of view, the squandered potential has been immense. From an equally highly frightening point of view, the outrage of what is wrong and the unwillingness of the various stewards of Amtrak to fix the problems has been horrifying.Amtrak has been for over 35 years, and remains today, a technically bankrupt company. Yet, it slogs along as if it has an uninterrupted flow of money from both federal and state treasuries. While this has mercifully begun to change, major surgery is still needed to rid Amtrak of this cancerous form of thinking and doing business.
6. America deserves better than Amtrak has provided over the past 35 years. Passenger rail, whether for business or leisure travel (apart from commuter travel which is a different industry) is an important part of any domestic transportation network. Amtrak’s skeletal system is a good demonstration of how to operate a railroad in the most expensive way, with the least positive results. It is not difficult to change this method of doing business for Amtrak by simply responding to market demand for more and better long distance trains and less emphasis on the future of passenger rail tied to the enormously expensive and often impractical building of high speed rail or Maglev systems, both socialist dreams at the expensive of someone else’s wallet. There is huge untapped demand for traditional rail that should first be met, and when America has its second mature passenger rail system (the first one was dismantled after World War II with the advent of the interstate highway system and the jet airplane), then there will be a proper time to consider whatever merits high speed rail may have for our country. Whatever may work in Europe because there is no mature highway system may not necessarily work here for high speed rail.Andrew Selden in his many writings (http://www.unitedrail.org) has demonstrated how an efficient, business-oriented Amtrak can be both prosperous and a good deal for travelers and the American taxpayer. Amtrak seems on the verge of moving in this direction. We all need patience as we see how the Amtrak Board of Directors and the new Amtrak president move to accomplish this goal.