United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 3 Number 28

1. Big changes are occurring at the top of Amtrak and with Amtrak’s nominal owner and banker. United States Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta has resigned his cabinet office, and is leaving President Bush’s cabinet on Friday, July 7th. Also leaving is Department of Transportation General Counsel Jeffrey A. Rosen, who is moving to the Office of Management and Budget.Mr. Rosen these past few years has served as Secretary Mineta’s designee on the Amtrak Board of Directors.

   Secretary Mineta has enjoyed a distinguished career in public service, as the Mayor of San Jose, California; a Democrat member of the House of Representatives from that district; and as the Secretary of Commerce in President Clinton’s cabinet; then making the immediate transition to President Bush’s cabinet.

   During Secretary Mineta’s tenure at the DOT, he served through the turbulent times of September 11, 2001, and followed by overseeing the creation and implementation of the Transportation Security Administration. Mr. Mineta has distinguished himself as the longest serving Secretary of Transportation, and during his stewardship, DOT recorded the lowest-ever rail and vehicle fatality rates, highest safety belt usage rate and safest three-year period in aviation history.

   His sometimes stormy stewardship of Amtrak as the railroad’s only significant stockholder has sparked great debate over the past five years. While it has been apparent at times his staff let him down on a full understanding of passenger rail issues, Mr. Mineta will be admired for his willingness to discuss passenger rail, and his constant attention to the need for change at Amtrak. At times playing the stern father figure, and at other times trying to forge a future for today’s broken Amtrak, Mr. Mineta clearly demonstrated a desire to end “business as usual” at Amtrak.

   The departure of Mr. Rosen from DOT and simultaneously from his ongoing position on the Amtrak board starts another round of musical chairs at the top of Amtrak.

   Mr. Rosen will be replaced by the next DOT secretary’s designee. Since we don’t know who the next Bush cabinet member will be, we don’t know who will replace Mr. Rosen. However, if you have the ability to think outside of the box, how about appointing a truly qualified designee such as former FRA Administrator Gilbert Carmichael, or retired World Bank railroad expert Lou Thompson? Both of these distinguished gentlemen have been a part of the federal government (Mr. Thompson oversaw the NEC Improvement project before joining the World Bank), and both have served their country without thought of personal gain, but for love of country and the honor of their professions.

2. The Chicago Sun-Times has run another story about the hapless Amtrak passengers stranded on train no. 318, the Hoosier State during Memorial Day weekend. It has been determined (both independently by TWA and the Sun-Times) that train and engine crews for the Hoosier State work out of the Indianapolis crew base, not the Chicago crew base. Since the train had traveled less than 20 miles from its Chicago terminal before the engineer allegedly ran the red signal and the train was forced to stop, no engineer was available from Indianapolis to travel the approximately 180 miles to rescue the stranded train.We are told Amtrak is now working on a plan that should this happen again, a relief crew will be readily available to take over a stricken train. The real question remains, why wasn’t such a plan already in place? It’s no excuse if someone from Amtrak says “we can’t think of everything.” Sure you can; that’s the idea of having a huge bureaucracy so you can have someone to come up with about every conceivable plan for about every conceivable contingency. It’s called being prepared. Perhaps we need a Boy Scout or Girl Scout to show us the way.
3. TWA is going on vacation for the next two weeks. A new TWA will be prepared the week of July 17th, unless a major development occurs.