Short Consists of Long Distance Trains

[neroden]

Well, Gardner was a prominent member of that management team and "fell" upwards to become Amtrak's COO. Obviously, being an oblivious moron is no impediment to gaining the C-Suite at Amtrak.

I still consider Gardner a problem. He has a record of proposing really stupid ideas designed to sabotage national rail service, over and over again. I am open to the idea that he's "changed his stripes", but....

 

[enviro5609]

We were on 21 Texas Eagle that left Chicago yesterday 11/22.

There was a third coach but still only 1 sleeper and 1 CCC. The cafe line was crazy. I felt bad for the staff— clearly overworked and overwhelmed. We tipped a little extra.

 

[user 14106]

I could be wrong but I think Gardner is more big on expanding corridors than he is any sort of principled against long distance service - if Congress gives him the money to do both he’ll take it. I think Anderson was also similar. I think they saw cutting LD as an opportunity to redistribute money to corridor building rather than any sort of principled hatred for the network. I think the idea was - all that money to fix the SWC route would be better spent on Atlanta - Charlotte as an example. They saw operating a few luxury LD routes and then otherwise focusing on corridors. But again if congress says run LD AND build out the corridors here’s the money I don’t think Gardner will object too loudly so long as he can build his corridors and gets his NEC money.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

As per above Gardner and Flynn’s actions especially with the Texas Eagle don’t show a management that wants to run a successful long distance network in its entirety. We should have a clearer picture in a year, post CoVid issues with stable funding in place.

It’s hard for me to get past Gardner and Anderson’s shouting match with what they had to know was falsified facts regarding the SWC. Amtrak’s accounting has to get in order more so now than ever.