This Week at Amtrak 2006-05-12
Volume 3 Number 21
- Tick, tick, tick, tick … As of this writing, very close to the middle of May, no new Amtrak President and CEO has been named. We all await the choice of the Amtrak Board of Directors with great anticipation.
- Whoever becomes the next chief steward of Amtrak, there are several daunting tasks that need to be undertaken immediately, above and beyond the financial, mechanical, transportation, passenger service, and operating issues.The Amtrak marketing department needs to be taken apart and put back together with a group of new professionals dedicated to the concept of Amtrak’s mandate to operate a national system of long distance trains. With the new group needs to be a new budget for marketing and advertising, that is more closely aligned with private sector budgets matching marketing performance with company revenues. Amtrak is spending about half now of what it should in this area, and the results demonstrate both a too small budget and a too wrong focus for Amtrak advertising.