Amtrak Board Releases Gunn

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Are both the Amtrak Board and this Administration totally shameless? What a cowardly and reprehensible action in firing David Gunn, a superb railroad manager. As stated in previous postings, we need to express our outrage over this action to Congress, governors, the Administration, and the press. The Amtrak Board and the Administration, unable to win on the facts of Amtrak, are seeking to dismantle Amtrak through underhanded deals.
 
Guest_Jim said:
Are both the Amtrak Board and this Administration totally shameless?
Yes.

What a cowardly and reprehensible action in firing David Gunn, a superb railroad manager.
Yes.

The Amtrak Board and the Administration, unable to win on the facts of Amtrak, are seeking to dismantle Amtrak through underhanded deals.
Remember the first thing the Amtrak board did when Bush made those recess appointments last year? They cut the Three Rivers and Palmetto. Nothing since then should have come as a surprise.
 
I really think the David Gunn interview in Railway Age should be put into everyone's heads. He's got it as one already has said. As of today, just one day after being told by management get ready for "operational suspensions" within a week is that dining cars and sleepers are coming off many western trains. Althought this is pure speculation at this time, a friend of mine (and source) is an run-through operations supervisior in CHI that has been getting preliminary trainset makeups that don't include these cars starting on Monday for the Builder, CZ, City and Texas Eagle. Is it a coincidence? He says he has never before seen such a thing in his 22 history at Amtrak, and never sees these kinds of preliminary car manifest unless a scheduled service "disruption" has are authorized from CNOC in Wilmington. There aren't any scheduled service disruptions on all of these trains at the same time! Amtrak corporate has everyone in NOL scared sh-tless. A coworker of mine who left today out of NOL was told by our crew base manager today in the pre-trip safety briefing to have enough cash and credit cards in order to get yourself back to town if train services are terminated before her crew gets back. One of the mechanical guys who works for CN whom I spoke with at the station working on CTC track interlockings near Airline Highway said it sounds like shades of Rock Island in the 70s, when crews didn't know if they'd get back home before the company quit operating. This is the new work atmosphere all Amtrak employees here in NOL got started with today. Hope all is well at other Amtrak facilities. :unsure: :(
 
Does anyone know what committee will be holding these hearings? Which members are on them? Please let us know if you do we can shoot them some emails and phone calls with our opinions of this disgraceful political move!!!!
 
We could only wish Dukakis would be Amtraks next president.
 
The Amtrak Board of Directors would rather have David Gunn than Michael Dukakis. Dukakis is a hard-line Democrat that would fight tooth and nail against union member concessions and the dropping of on-board service, as it would cause massive furloughs and reduce the the union's labor force who pay dues and weaken the union's overall political strength. David Gunn was in early talks with various labor unions for more concessions, like employee healthcare copays, elimination of the assistant conductor, and elimination of clerical employee work rules that forced Amtrak to reduce the number of staffed stations due to rising costs of keeping many stations open daily, or at all. I don't put anything past this Board of Directors to come up with a crazy plan, but with most members of this forum believing Bush cronyism being the primary reason for Gunn's termination, why would GW's Board hire the man who ran against his father for president in 1988! :huh:
 
AmtrakLoverAndHater said:
Does anyone know what committee will be holding these hearings?  Which members are on them?  Please let us know if you do we can shoot them some emails and phone calls with our opinions of this disgraceful political move!!!!
It's the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Heres a link. http://www.house.gov/transportation/

Here's an interesting letter they sent to David Laney. http://www.narprail.org/cms/images/uploads...D_Let_Laney.pdf
 
Here's an interesting letter they sent to David Laney.http://www.narprail.org/cms/images/uploads...D_Let_Laney.pdf
Nice letter. Unfortunately, everyone who signed it is a Democrat, and somehow I doubt that will carry much weight.
 
Nice letter. Unfortunately, everyone who signed it is a Democrat, and somehow I doubt that will carry much weight.
There probably aren't any Republicans who have the intestinal fortitude to sign something like that.
 
trainboy325 said:
I really think the David Gunn interview in Railway Age should be put into everyone's heads. He's got it as one already has said. As of today, just one day after being told by management get ready for "operational suspensions" within a week is that dining cars and sleepers are coming off many western trains. Althought this is pure speculation at this time, a friend of mine (and source) is an run-through operations supervisior in CHI that has been getting preliminary trainset makeups that don't include these cars starting on Monday for the Builder, CZ, City and Texas Eagle. Is it a coincidence? He says he has never before seen such a thing in his 22 history at Amtrak, and never sees these kinds of preliminary car manifest unless a scheduled service "disruption" has are authorized from CNOC in Wilmington. \
Well I have some good news Apperntly 5/6 still have Diners and Sleepers I went out to check it out today. 2 P42's, 1 Baggage, 1 Dorm, 2 Sleepers, 1 Diner, 1 Lounge, 3 Coaches. I will give links to the photos later.
 
REMARKS FOR THE HONORALE NORMAN Y. MINETA

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

ASSOCIATION FOR A BETTER NEW YORK (AMTRAK)

NEW YORK, NY

NOVEMBER 17, 2005

8:30 AM

Thank you, Bill [William Rudin, President, Rudin Management and Chairman of the Association for a Better New York] for that kind introduction.

And my thanks to all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here this morning. This is a powerful gathering, and I appreciate Bill and the Association for a Better New York making it possible for me to speak with you today.

I wanted to come here to give you a first-hand report on what is going on with Amtrak.

I thought that it was important to do so here, because nowhere is intercity passenger rail service a more vital piece of the transportation puzzle than it is in New York City.

And I thought that it was important to do so now, because significant changes have been set in motion.

And contrary to some assertions by people who have many mixed agendas, I want to tell you what my objectives are with respect to Amtrak… and what they are not.

During my thirty years in public life, transportation has been my passion. When I was a mayor of a city that was becoming the center of the Silicon Valley, transportation was the central component of my work on business development.

When I was chair of the major transportation committee in the Congress, I joined with your Senator, Pat Moynihan, and we required the obsolete federal transportation funding system of “freeways first” to become an intermodal system that included public transit – both heavy and light rail.

Yet throughout this time, first Conrail and then Amtrak kept successfully operating on a subsidized basis while making one broken promise after another that it would reform itself and become a profitable enterprise.

Many Members of Congress would accept these promises knowing that there was nothing behind them. They did that because, if asked, they actually believe that America should have a European-style, state-subsidized system of rail. But, the truth of the matter is, since Congress as a majority and Americans as an electorate would flatly disagree with that approach, they were satisfied with the status quo.

The result: in the field of transportation, the passenger rail system in the United States today is an antique.

I believe very strongly that there is a viable future for passenger rail transportation in the United States. But the future is not the 1950s model for passenger rail.

You might want to lean a little closer for this next part – I had to leave Washington D.C. to be able to say it.

The United States is not Europe or Japan.

Passenger rail simply cannot compete with air travel in most markets in the United States. The country is simply too large; our population centers are too distant.

Unless you are taking the train for the experience of taking the train, you do not ride Amtrak from New York City to Los Angeles… or Denver… or probably even Chicago. Not when you can make the trip by air in hours, rather than days… and, in most cases, at a lower price.

On the other hand, many of us prefer to take the train from New York to Washington, D.C., or Boston. On those routes, Amtrak basically splits the market with the airlines. And a lot more Americans would like to take a fast and efficient train system from Boston to New York… or Sacramento to San Francisco… instead of driving.

I have spent the last year traveling the country, looking at the rail system and meeting with community and business leaders. I firmly believe that there are other regions where passenger rail can be a viable transportation business.

Some of them already exist. And, as corridor traffic grows, it creates links where longer distance rail travel, that wouldn’t otherwise be viable, is nevertheless available.

Strip away all the rhetoric and the histrionics and here is the fundamental difference between the Bush Administration and its critics. We are willing to use taxpayer money to fund passenger rail where it makes sense, but we aren’t where it doesn’t.

Let me say that again. This Administration is willing to invest federal dollars in passenger rail service.

We are willing to provide federal funds to build and repair tracks, just as we spend taxpayer money to build and repair highways, runways, and subway lines.

We are willing to invest federal funds in train stations and switching equipment, just as we invest in exit ramps, air traffic control towers, and new transit depots every day.

And yes, we want to spend federal funds to improve the tracks, tunnels, bridges, and stations along the Northeast Corridor, which we recognize is vital… not just to New York and the other communities along the route… but also to the economic health of this Nation.

But we aren’t willing to continue funding the current system. We aren’t even willing to continue funding tinkering around the edges.

In corporate America, if your failing business wants to attract new capital to keep it afloat, you have to make real changes to your operation… changes that are significant enough to give new investors confidence that your company can turn itself around. That’s exactly where we stand with Amtrak.

Just two weeks ago, the government’s auditors issued a scathing indictment of the company.

They pointed to systemic failures ranging from weak financial reporting and management… to lack of clear mission and strategic plan… to transparency and accountability issues.

But most troubling of all was the bottom line. From 2002 to 2004, when Amtrak was supposedly being “stabilized,” its losses actually increased by 7 percent. And the report predicted annual losses would increase by another 40 percent by 2009.

If your company were already losing a billion dollars a year, and you received that prognosis, you would take decisive, dramatic action to reverse it. Period.

Well, wait a minute. I take that back.

You would take decisive action unless you could go back to the Congress and get more money without real reforms.

Amtrak management has always been able to do that…. and they expected that they could do it this time.

And that’s precisely what the Amtrak Board and the U.S. Department of Transportation said that it did not want to happen. Tough choices have to be made. There is simply too much at stake to allow one of the worst performing business enterprises in America to deteriorate any further.

Sadly, there are those who are erroneously characterizing the Board’s action as the first step toward shutting Amtrak down.

Let me suggest that the best indicator of the Board’s true intentions will be their selection of Amtrak’s next chief executive.

And Board President David Laney made clear, they’re looking for a turn-around CEO... not a liquidator. I agree.

The Board has shown that it is serious by crafting an ambitious reform proposal and demanding action on it. And on September 22, it began to pave the way for Northeast Corridor improvements by beginning to study how to establish it as a subsidiary, within Amtrak.

Board President Laney told Congress two days ago that nobody fully understands the complexities of this task. And that’s why the Board will study the issue before making any decisions.

And there are encouraging signs that the Congress is beginning to accept the Administration’s approach to real reform.

Just as we promised in February: we are willing to invest federal funds in Amtrak if the money comes with reforms attached.

And I’m hoping that next year we will be able to tie even more reforms to a new budget request. It’s the only way to put passenger rail service in the United States back on the right track.

There are some who have said, “Mineta, what happened? You’re going to stand by while Amtrak is dismantled?” Let me be clear about this. Amtrak is not a public policy issue that you can sit around and debate while nothing gets done. You can’t stall reform because just you can’t get the system that you want.

This is an operating transportation system that thousands of people rely on. It needs to be run safely and efficiently.

We need a better Amtrak, and I believe that we are beginning to take the actions that will accomplish that.

Again, thank you for letting me come and talk to you today. It’s always a pleasure to be in this great city. Thank you for everything that you do to keep it great.

# # #
 
Its clear Amtrak is only small corridors to Mineta and the Adminstration. The only thing thats more clearer Mineta, Laney and other from the Adminstaration can not be trusted at all when it comes to Amtrak. We can only be lied to so many times.
 
I think it is political BUSH that will be the end of AMTRAK if all who ride it do not speak up mow. We do not need just a corridor system. I am disaled and use AMTRAK as my means of travel when I go out of town to visit relatives. Regardless of what has been said there is NO airfare cheaper from Huntington WV than an AMTRAK ticket.
 
Conrail:

What makes you think Amtrak will "do better" as a result of David Gunn being terminated?
 
Conrail said:
gunn fired from a gun :p   :p   :lol:   :lol:
David Gunn was Amtrak's best and brightest asset for a solid, stable future.

I, along with the majority of the Amtrak's supporters, am saddened that he has been fired and that the Bush administration singlehandedly has gotten away with it by manipulating and hand-picking the Amtrak Board of Directors to do its dirty work.

:(

Our congressmen and congresswomen are truly our best allies and the only body that can, has, and continues to stand in the way of the Bush administration's plan to dismantle and liquidate Amtrak. They are not fully educated on exactly how Amtrak operates but they are wise enough to recognize that their constituents want and strongly support our national passenger rail system.

It will be tougher for our congress to preserve our existing passenger rail network without a strong, proven, powerful leader such as Gunn running it; he has played a key role of keeping the company together and making it much more successful within the past few years. Long haul equipment, for the first time in years, is beginning to be refurbished and join the 21st century. Such improvements will need to continue for the rail network to truly succeed; it has simply remained stagnant far too long. I hope congress can hold things together long enough until we get a new administration that recognizes the importance of passenger rail in this country and will be willing to adequately fund and expand it to serve a greater general population base.
 
Hey Anthony or Alan, in all respect to the content, is it me or is this subject matter just a little old now? Time to take it down off the pin if you ask me. OBS...
 
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