Countdown to Boardman's departure

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Reason #17 to cheer for privately funded rail in the US to succeed instead of dealing with bureaucrats.

 

[Anderson]

With all of that being said, I think there's a lot of frustration directed at some of the impractical, bordering on false, promises that were made (e.g. food service). It is one thing to "go off and do your own thing"; it's another to more or less lie to your nominal bosses.

 

[dlagrua]

Reason #17 to cheer for privately funded rail in the US to succeed instead of dealing with bureaucrats.

First off must agree with JIS on the stranglehold that the establishment has on Amtrak and the bureaucracy that governs it. He's right, it won't change but my point was that Boardman made promises that he knew that he could not possibly keep. Did he stress the importance of the service to the American people well enough to congress? Perhaps without high priced lobbyists that take their marching orders from corporate America and support the politicians, Amtrak will always have limited influence in Washington.

While one can believe in fair enterprise as a solution, the private railroad companies have shown little interest in getting back into the passenger rail transportation business. Where they have, Iowa Pacific and the Burlington div of BNSF now have routes. (both subsidized though).

Boardman is now a lame duck, and will be gone by the end of the year. A new chairman will be appointed by the next president and lets hope that he has better solutions than Boardman did. IMO, Boardman wasn't bad but he wasn't that good. .

 

[jis]

That is the gist of my point. Given the way these top level bureaucrats are hemmed in they cannot really be "good" unless they are exceptionally extraordinary - something that you don;t come across often on a bureaucrat's salary.. They can vary between mediocre and bad.

Now the following is not an attempt to defend what Boardman or Warrington or whoever else did, but an attempt to dig down to see what human motivations may have caused certain actions to unfold, without assigning any value judgement to it.

I do not condone people knowingly lying, and I am not sure that Boardman necessarily lied when he said that he would remove losses on food service. His actions have shown that he was willing to take a crack at it to quite an extent (which if you ask me is the scarier part) Things are typically not that black and white. I also don't know what the exact quid pro quo was for that statement. If it was something like "OK we'll let you run the Diners for now if you promise to reduce the losses to zero in five years". When put on the spot like that (and trust me politicians and top managers are masters at that sort of thing) would you say that you won't do it and thus have all Diner service be shut down immediately. Or resign and leave and leave it upto some other sap to deal with it? Or make some ambiguous promise to keep things going? Simply dropping the ball - How would that help anyone?

Under similar duress Warrington apparently also managed to promise to reduce all Amtrak losses to zero in x number of years, supposedly when the choice was something like shutting half the system down immediately too.

Sometimes it may be worth making a tall but ambiguous promise to not lose everything at a given point in time. Things are not as black and white as we who have not experienced such hard nosed arm twisting think they are or ought to be.

Technically, the new Chairman could be appointed by this President. There is precedent for such, and Amtrak is not so major an issue that the new President immediately changes the Chairman either as we have seen in the past.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Oops, duplicate post!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Jis: are you sure you didn't spend a few years in Sodom and Gomorrah on the Potomac?

You've really nailed it in your synopsis of the Dilemma that faces any Amtrak CEO!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

After reading every post in this thread it sounds like the jury is still out. Which makes sense since Boardman hasn't even left office yet. It should be interesting to see what his successor has to say about Amtrak's state of affairs once Boardman is gone.

 

[jis]

Jis: are you sure you didn't spend a few years in Sodom and Gomorrah on the Potomac?

You've really nailed it in your synopsis of the Dilemma that faces any Amtrak CEO!

This is actually an evidence of sorts that Sodom and Gomorrah is not just on the Potomac and not just in Government either. The large private enterprises are often no better.

 

[Eric S]

While one can believe in fair enterprise as a solution, the private railroad companies have shown little interest in getting back into the passenger rail transportation business. Where they have, Iowa Pacific and the Burlington div of BNSF now have routes. (both subsidized though).

What "Burlington div of BNSF" are you referring to?

 

[jis]

I think he is talking about Metra's Burlington Route to Aurora if I am not mistaken.

 

[Eric S]

I sort of guessed as much, but don't really see how that Metra line is related to privatized intercity passenger rail.

 

[jis]

I sort of guessed as much, but don't really see how that Metra line is related to privatized intercity passenger rail.

It is not. Neither is Hoosier State. Both are operating contracts for certain aspects of a passenger service. The Metra contract isa actually a much more all encompassing one with BNSF than the Hoosier State is with InDOT.

Private scheduled operations are for example Saratoga and North Creek or Grand Canyon Railway, and soon to start Brightline in Florida.

 

[Eric S]

I sort of guessed as much, but don't really see how that Metra line is related to privatized intercity passenger rail.

It is not. Neither is Hoosier State. Both are operating contracts for certain aspects of a passenger service. The Metra contract isa actually a much more all encompassing one with BNSF than the Hoosier State is with InDOT.

Private scheduled operations are for example Saratoga and North Creek or Grand Canyon Railway, and soon to start Brightline in Florida.

Right. And good point about Iowa Pacific/Hoosier State.

And Metra BNSF (as well as Metra UP) is not an example of a private railroad getting back into passenger business either.

 

[B757Guy]

Can anyone really fix Amtrak, given the poor funding and overall disdain passenger rail seems to have in government? It's a damn shame, but not sure anyone can make the railroad better

 

[Hal]

Can anyone really fix Amtrak, given the poor funding and overall disdain passenger rail seems to have in government? It's a damn shame, but not sure anyone can make the railroad better

No, they can't really fix it with the poor funding but they can make the railroad worse.
Whoever it will be has to carry out the policies of the Amtrak Board of Directors. Or be out of a job. Funding and politics will limit that person no matter how wonderful a manager or person they may or may not be.

 

[Woodcut60]

@Thirdrail7 and WoodyinNYC: Great summaries and assessments. I learned a lot! I think given the resources and a lukewarm, reluctant Congress he's done a nice job.

 

[afigg]

Fred Frailey of Trains Magazine posted a column on July 22 with his speculation and opinions on who might replace Boardman: Amtrak: Connect the dots. He may or may not know anything, but simply had a column he has to fill with something. Anyway, something for discussion on Boardman's possible replacement. Starting excerpt:

Any time now, Amtrak’s directors will elect a new president and chief executive, to replace Joe Boardman, who is retiring. I’ve talked to people who have been approached by the executive recruiting firm looking for this person. The recruiter is telling people Amtrak wants an experienced railroad manager in the top job.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Interesting, thanks for posting!

Since this job is a political appointment one would think that President Obama and Amtrak Joe Biden would want to fill the slot with their person,( although technically the Board will appoint the new CEO) not leave it to the next occupant of the White House, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Genghis Trump.

I can think of several persons that would make excellent Amtrak CEOs but they wouldn't consider this No Win job since they are competent persons and are tired of all the Hate and BS in Washington.

No one in their right mind would want this job, but as they say, there are always hacks that lust after these kind of political jobs, so let's hope we don't get one of these but probably will!

 

[dlagrua]

The question is if any Amtrak president can make strides in improving the service? Amtrak is totally dependent on a congress that calls the shots..

 

[Braniff747SP]

Joe Boardman impressed me as another Bush conservative political hack that always did everything that was best for his career. He will best be remembered for his quote "we will make the dining cars profitable" and by sleeper passengers that pay more and no longer see a newspaper, ice, dinner chocolates, a couple of flowers on the table, and a reduced food menu. Twenty cent bottles of water are now rationed out. He was quick to capitulate to congress and lied that he could make the dining cars profitable; a feat that has never been done in the history of railroading! What he should have said is how many federal highways do we have that are making money? Instead of challenging, he surrendered. Now that Joe Boardman is riding it out to retirement, he leaves the mess that he made to the next guy. Hopefully the new appointee will have a better idea how to run Amtrak.

A better idea how to run the railroad by what, exactly? Making sure that there are dinner chocolates? That's absurd.

I know that people on this board don't like hearing it, but there was--and remains--a distinct need to cut costs at Amtrak if it is to survive.

People have unrealistic romantic ideas about what an Amtrak CEO can do.

Exactly - couldn't have said it better myself.

Boardman, in my view, did the best he could in challenging circumstances. He did come a bit short when it came to advocating for the railroad, I think, from a PR standpoint; at times it felt that Amtrak lacked a visible voice on Capitol Hill.

 

[norfolkwesternhenry]

The question is if any Amtrak president can make strides in improving the service? Amtrak is totally dependent on a congress that calls the shots..

well, not completely, the states help a little

 

[norfolkwesternhenry]

Interesting, thanks for posting!

Since this job is a political appointment one would think that President Obama and Amtrak Joe Biden would want to fill the slot with their person,( although technically the Board will appoint the new CEO) not leave it to the next occupant of the White House, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Genghis Trump.

I can think of several persons that would make excellent Amtrak CEOs but they wouldn't consider this No Win job since they are competent persons and are tired of all the Hate and BS in Washington.

No one in their right mind would want this job, but as they say, there are always hacks that lust after these kind of political jobs, so let's hope we don't get one of these but probably will!

I would like to be the CEO, for all the train rides, I would be happy to deal with all the BS in WAS, and all the haters. Also, I would say: "a dining car would only be profitable if everyone eats, including all the coach passengers.

 

[jis]

Most fortunately you have no chance of becoming the CEO this time around. You don't really appear to have any clue of what is involved.

 

[greatcats]

Stay in school, Henry. I want you to have a bright future. Please don't become a corporate hack!

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

The question is if any Amtrak president can make strides in improving the service? Amtrak is totally dependent on a congress that calls the shots..

Or POTUS for that matter.

I know that people on this board don't like hearing it, but there was--and remains--a distinct need to cut costs at Amtrak if it is to survive.

They (Congress) could've made better choices on the particular cuts they made.

Do you know what they call a group of baboons? A congress!