Amtrak Board

[user 14106]

Don't these nominations need to be approved by the Senate?

Correct.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

I don't see any of our names...they must've posted the wrong list!

Did you apply for the position?

 

[BlackDiamond]

Don’t get your hopes up. There was a Trains article on the nominations Biden made today, and it looks like a bunch of political payback with no relevant experience, and not much representation outside of the Northeast.

I guess I'm having a hard time seeing an Amtrak board appointment being political payback. I mean this isn't like being appointed ambassador to Luxemburg. At best it would be a line on a resume.

 

[John Webb]

There is room for optimism. Nominee Chris Koos in a Trains interview spoke fondly of his earlier years of riding long distance trains. he lives in, and is mayor of, the not-on-the-NEC town of Normal, Ill. He had this to say in the interview: "I will be a strong voice for the long-distance trains; they are critical".

 

[neroden]

The Koos and Capozzi nominations are excellent. Capozzi has been heavily involved with organizations which have worked for decades to make Amtrak accessible (with Amtrak management kicking and screaming the whole way). Koos was involved in getting upgrades to the station at Normal and advocating for better service.

The Coscia nomination -- are you kidding me? The man has amply proved his inability to do anything useful for Amtrak. He's had 12 years of ignoring Amtrak's problems and refusing to lift a finger to fix the simplest things (like ingredients lists for the food). Advocates have to oppose his renomination.

 

[neroden]

Samuel Lathem - labor

I really don't understand why they couldn't have found someone from the labor movement who wasn't an AUTOMOBILE worker, but I'll keep an open mind. Maybe he isn't that into autos?

David Capozzi - ADA

Will be excellent

Chris Koos - "currently serves on the Advisory Board of Transportation for America and is Vice Chair for Passenger Rail with the US Conference of Mayors.”

Will be excellent

Robin Wiessmann - financials

FWIW, she was most recently working in public housing finance, and people in public housing are often heavy users of public transportation, for financial reasons. Also was involved in "Environmental Financing Advisory Board". May have genuine support for getting people onto trains and off of car dependency.


However, Coscia is unqualified. He's been on the Board for 12 years and has done a demonstrably bad job, failed to provide oversight of management, and been very bad at hiring new management. (Boardman was hired *before* Coscia was on the Board.) It's ridiculous to renominate him.

 

[jis]

I really don't understand why they couldn't have found someone from the labor movement who wasn't an AUTOMOBILE worker, but I'll keep an open mind. Maybe he isn't that into autos?


Will be excellent


Will be excellent


FWIW, she was most recently working in public housing finance, and people in public housing are often heavy users of public transportation, for financial reasons. Also was involved in "Environmental Financing Advisory Board". May have genuine support for getting people onto trains and off of car dependency.


However, Coscia is unqualified. He's been on the Board for 12 years and has done a demonstrably bad job, failed to provide oversight of management, and been very bad at hiring new management. (Boardman was hired *before* Coscia was on the Board.) It's ridiculous to renominate him.

I have noted the error in reappointing Coscia even to RPA. Maybe we should start a signature campaign among RPA Council Members to try to get the RPA to do something about it.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Procedural question? Last time around Trump nominated Koos and some other people that were extreme anti Amtrak nominees. They had holds put on them from Senator Moran as I recall. Most, if not all like Koos never got a vote and in effect just went away.

Evan Stair has an article out requesting everyone contact their Senators to reject Coscia‘s nomination. My question is, if a vote never comes up or a hold is placed on his nomination does he go away like others in the past or is he still an active, yet term expired board member as he is today?

 

[MikefromCrete]

I have to agree with Neroden. Koos will be an excellent appointment. He has been very active in promoting Amtrak service to his town and should be a good voice for the outside the Northeast Corridor operations.
Lathan and Capozzi will represent labor and handicapped ridership and Weissman seems competent. But, again, all are Northeast Corridor residents. Hopefully they will be able to see beyond their residency.

Reappointing Coscia is a big blunder. He's compliant with most of the big errors Amtrak has made in the past few years. He does not deserve a reappointment.

So, it look like Coscia and Weissman will represent the NEC on the board, Lathan organized labor, Capozzi handicapped riders and Koos state supported routes.
That leaves the two national network reps and one more state supported routes rep up to the Republicans. Heavens knows who they will come up with. Hopefully not the anti-Amtrak types that Trump tried to nominate.
I must say I'm basically dissatisfied with the overall appointments, but particularly with Coscia.

 

[MARC Rider]

I must say I'm basically dissatisfied with the overall appointments, but particularly with Coscia.

You said pretty much positive (or at least neutral) things about all of the appointees, except Cosica, and thus, you're "basically dissatisfied?" That doesn't make sense.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I would have like to have seen more people with a railroad or even hospitality background, but at least the nominees seem competent and I don't see any anti-Amtrak fanatics among them.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Almost universal opposition and outrage from all the normal pundits except RPA interestingly enough.

http://corridorrail.com/u-s-amtrak-...rection-for-those-who-want-a-national-system/

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Almost universal opposition and outrage from all the normal pundits except RPA interestingly enough.

The author mainly seems to be outraged about Coscia, which I think most of us can get behind, and the Amtrak board being NEC-centric, which has been the case for a long time now. I like the proposal of splitting Amtrak into interstate and corridor management internally but nobody ever promised that would happen and it was always going to be a long shot. My advice is to tell your Senator you do not believe Coscia has demonstrated fitness for this important position and you do not want his nomination approved. By focusing our efforts hopefully we can get him nixed and move on to the next battle.

 

[neroden]

I'm talking to people I know within RPA: I'm making the point that I don't doubt Coscia's *good will*, but he's spent 12 years on the Amtrak Board, including many years as Chair, while Amtrak screwed up more and more extremely basic things -- stuff that should have been easy to fix, but somehow wasn't fixed.

We're talking not enough Red Caps to support handicapped customers at Chicago Union Station; no ingredients lists for the onboard food; no timetables. Failure at basics.

This shows a failure to provide oversight of management.

The buck has to stop somewhere.

 

[user 14106]

I’m not a huge fan of Coscia - but I have mixed feelings about expending a significant amount of political capitol opposing him given its probably fairly unlikely he’s going to get blocked and if you rail against him too much and then he gets in anyway it’s probably not worth burning bridges - there’s going to be two NEC reps no matter what happens and as they sometimes say about the devil you know…. In my opinion it might be better to instead focus on the effort of lobbying the Amtrak friendly GOP senators to try to get 3 decent national network representatives with the remaining 3 picks. Biden’s Democratic picks were always going to include the two NEC picks and frankly I’m not all that surprised Coscia is one of those two.

 

[neroden]

That's certainly one point of view. I personally am not so much for the "NEC vs. LD" tempests-in-teapots.

I'm mostly concerned about the block-and-tackle management failures.

If we can get enough reps with the remaining picks who will *bother to provide management oversight* to make sure the basics *actually get done*, then Coscia may become unimportant. That would be OK.

 

[west point]

Not confirming Coscia might send an important message to the rest of the board. Big brother is watching.

 

[IndyLions]

Saw a tweet tonight from RPA with a petition link attached. They were trying to promote a more balanced geographic makeup of the board.

Sorry I don’t have a link to the tweet handy…

 

[Deni]

I would have like to have seen more people with a railroad or even hospitality background, but at least the nominees seem competent and I don't see any anti-Amtrak fanatics among them.

Hospitality background is a good point, have there been many board members with that background before? The hospitality-centered area of Amtrak seems to be what generates a lot of complaints and ill-will toward the organization, especially on long-distance routes. Getting someone from, say, the cruise industry could be a big plus for trying to fix what ails much of Amtrak's onboard experience.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Cruise or even hotel and or restaurant industry. Hotel would check both boxes for accommodations and food as most hotels offer various dining options.

 

[jis]

I believe there is a requirement for a certain party split on the board. Biden is likely allowing Senate Republicans to choose three picks who he will then nominate after they indicate their selections. Correcting myself on saying 5 picks before - 2 of the 10 member board are Gardner and Secretary Buttigieg (I'm guessing he can also send a designee) who serve ex officio. I suspect a few of the pro Amtrak GOP Senators will likely have a prime role in selecting these picks.

Gardner does not have a vote though. He is a non-voting member. See:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/24302
BTW, the RPA petition can be found at:

https://www.votervoice.net/NARPRAIL/Petitions/3169/Respond

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Thanks for the link.

Signed and sent.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

If what Evan Stair is reporting is true the Board will have a legal quorum after this batch of nominees. So if the White House doesn't nominate anyone else they could be complicit in circumventing congresses wishes and allowing this NEC focused Board free reign. I wouldn’t count anything out of the realm of possibilities yet. The Coscia reappointment is just mind-boggling, why?

 

[Steve4031]

I signed it and wrote an email to Durbin, my senator in Illinois.

 

[John Webb]

Signed.