Stephen Gardner Appointed as Amtrak CEO

[jebr]

Amtrak press release:

WASHINGTON – Amtrak Board Chair Tony Coscia today announced that Bill Flynn will be retiring after leading Amtrak since April 2020 and that Stephen J. Gardner will be appointed as the company’s new President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 17, 2022.

Gardner currently serves as Amtrak’s President, leading the railroad’s day-to-day operations, customer growth initiatives and strategies to modernize Amtrak’s products, services, infrastructure and fleet.

Flynn, who led Amtrak through COVID-19 recovery efforts, prioritized safety and customer experience initiatives, advanced major infrastructure projects, expanded the company’s diversity and inclusion and executed major equipment procurements, all to position the company for the future. Flynn will continue as a senior advisor to Gardner and the company for the remainder of the fiscal year following his retirement to support the transition.

 

[jiml]

Now if you'd said the appointment was effective April 1, 2022...

 

[LookingGlassTie]

Hmmmm, could get interesting..................

 

[Bob Dylan]

Amtrak press release:

 

[NSC1109]

well it was nice while it lasted.

 

[jis]

No surprise here. I quite expected it.

 

[TinCan782]

Revolving door?

 

[Steve4031]

Imho this is hardly improvement. Wouldn’t this be more of the same?

 

[20th Century Rider]

Rapid succession of in and out... with head spinning frequency. Hmmm... wonder what that means???

 

[jis]

Rearranging deck chairs seldom causes any improvement to the fate of the ship.

 

[20th Century Rider]

Rearranging deck chairs seldom causes any improvement to the fate of the ship.

But encourages interesting conversation as things happen...

 

[jis]

But encourages interesting conversation as things happen...

Leading often to moving the Piano to the other side of the room, if that

 

[zephyr17]

Hmmmm, could get interesting..................

Anderson was "interesting", as in the old curse, "May you live in interesting times."

 

[zephyr17]

Imho this is hardly improvement. Wouldn’t this be more of the same?

He's been the man behind the curtain for years, so really no change.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Well, some of you wanted a RR person at the helm….

 

[Amtrak25]

He is also a former Congressional staffer, who wrote PRIIA, and therefore a conflict of interest.

 

[PRR 60]

The last three CEO appointments were all caretakers - retired CEO's in their 60's who came in basically to keep the ship afloat. Gardner is different - mid 40's and a promote from within - not sure when that has happened before at Amtrak. He knows the organization; he knows how trains work. He also has a handle on the politics part of the job (and it's a big part) given his prior staff work in Congress and ties to President Biden. As long as the board stays in his corner, he could be around for a while.

 

[chrsjrcj]

Considering some have believed Gardner to be the puppet master, can we expect much change? At least he'll be directly accountable for his actions.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Dang never even saw the job posting. How do get the job if they never post it?

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

One more nail in Amtraks coffin. Gardner will continue the lunacy that we are now accustomed to, he’s already been behind most of it anyway. He will bide his time until he gets his ulterior wish of an anti Amtrak Administration and/or Congress that lets him splinter Amtrak into a few clusters of corridors and nothing else. He’s a relatively young guy with an agenda so I feel strongly it’s plausible especially with his past actions.

 

[PaTrainFan]

One more nail in Amtraks coffin. Gardner will continue the lunacy that we are now accustomed to, he’s already been behind most of it anyway. He will bide his time until he gets his ulterior wish of an anti Amtrak Administration and/or Congress that lets him splinter Amtrak into a few clusters of corridors and nothing else. He’s a relatively young guy with an agenda so I feel strongly it’s plausible especially with his past actions.

But there will be a new Amtrak board as per the infrastructure bill that might hold his feet to the fire in terms of the national network.

 

[me_little_me]

Gardner in charge.

The fox in charge of the hen house.

I think he should be put in charge - in January of 2098!

 

[Acela150]

As long as the board stays in his corner, he could be around for a while.

The board is now about to undergo a major overhaul thanks to the IIJA and Re-Authorization bill. Which is and was desperately needed.

All I will say is that with the current board that's in place, they are under the impression that he'll be the longest tenured President of Amtrak. Once the board is officially reconfigured, that may change.

 

[frequentflyer]

Why the hate for Gardner? He is no Graham Claytor but still.

 

[Palmland]

It remains to be seen how effective he will be, but at least he has some railroad background and, perhaps more importantly, has experience in dealing with Congress. This from a ‘Trains’ magazine report:

“Gardner, 45, has an extensive Capitol Hill background. He was a senior staff member on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Surface Transportation & Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security. Before that, he was legislative assistant for transportation for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Rep. Bob Clement (D-Tenn.). He also held operating and managerial positions with Guilford’s Maine Central Railroad as well as the Buckingham Branch Railroad.”