Announcement made today. Perhaps the new administration signalled him they have someone else in mind.
The new admin has no say except over the board and there terms are not up. I'd bet he was frrustrated he couldn't fix things.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
According to Trains Newswire today, the board forced him out in a dispute over restructuring the debt; he and the chairman disagreed on matters related to debt restructure. No details were given.
Johnny
The Amtrak Board is comprised of individuals whose selection may not have been based on their knowledge of the railroad business or perhaps any business at all -- Joe Biden's son is a poster child of an example. For that matter, the Amtrak Chairman is a Transportation Department executive who left to become a lobbyist for clients such as Boeing.
While I may not have agreed with everything Mr. Kummant attempted to do, I tend to accept his side as what would have been in the best interest of the company. .
Sam1Why any sane business person would want to be the CEO of Amtrak is a mystery. It is a political organization masquerading as a business. How does a sane business person respond to 535 prima donnas (U.S. Congress) who are convinced that they know more about running a passenger railroad than anyone else? Amtrak is a poster child of how not to run a railroad. In fact, it is even a bad political organization.
That's why the best and most successsful have been "true' believers", that is, people like us with,perhaps an unhealthy interest in trains. Those would include Reistrup, Claytor and Gunn. They at least has some sort of vision for the company and a high enough interest level to stick with it longer than any rational person would.
I worked for Amtrak for 13 years in the training operations departments. I enjoyed my work and travel with this company. Anything that the government puts there hands on they destroy it The only reason Amtrak has made it this far is because people need passenger trains in United States. The passenger train of today is still a poor tool. The equipment needs repair and with chickenwire and glue they keep the trains running. What is so badly needed in just about everything the government does his leadership something this government has no idea of. They get little boys and little girls that went to some college somewhere and that makes him qualified to be on the board of directors(appointed by the president of the United States) they make decisions on how to run trains and where to get the money to run the company. I liked Alex Kumant and I believe that he was given the chance he could straighten out a lot of the problems that Amtrak has. If we leave running a railroad up to the idiots in Congress forget it, we may as well go back to the horse and buggy days. We see what has happened to CSX when the whiz kids got on their board. There is no leadership anywhere today and it's getting worse. You asked who would want to be the CEO of Amtrak, I wonder about that also. Just watch who they choose to be the next president of Amtrak. Look who is on the Board of Directors of Amtrak look into who they are and you'll see what I mean. Amtrak was a great idea but as long as you don't have any leadership you have what you got now. As our country goes down the tubes with the new administration that we have just voted on, watch what's going to happen to Amtrak who knows how it will end up. I just can't see anything good coming from the idiots in Congress and the Senate.Wake up America before it is too late
Anything that the government puts there hands on they destroy it The only reason Amtrak has made it this far is because people need passenger trains in United States. The passenger train of today is still a poor tool.
I am curious if you have some specific deficiencies in mind regarding the way Amtrak is operated.
The reason I ask is that being essentially a kid at heart, I like the idea of space travel, and I like trains. When I draw comparisons to what is happening with Amtrak to some of the concerns with NASA, my train advocate friends get all huffy that NASA has 10 times the budget of Amtrak and besides space travel is all pork-barrel waste and trains are a serious matter, but to react that way misses the point, to see if there are any common patterns in government agencies.
With what NASA is doing, their advocacy community may be armchair engineers and managers the way we are, but at least they have some pretty specific concerns. If you go on any of number of "rocket blogs", the notion is that in the wake of the Columbia accident, NASA was given the charge to return humans to the Moon, and they have managed to spend a goodly amount of time and money on returning to the Moon, but they appear to be doing it badly and perhaps disasterously.
On one hand, they appear to have designed a Moon ship (a pair of them really, an Earth-return reentry module and a Moon lander) that is too big for the rocket they have in mind. The size of the Moon ship is driven by the desire to have something bigger than Apollo, what they did 40 years ago, an "Apollo on steroids." It appears that the size of the Moon ship was driven by a desire to have something bigger and better rather than on practical considerations of what it would take to get it there. I also hear that the Moon ship is to allow for 6 foot-plus astronauts out of some desire to be socially inclusive, but the original spacecraft were designed for essentially short people to save on weight and cost.
The other thing going on is that they are designing a new rocket, actually a pair of new rockets, and it seems that the overriding design goal was to use a solid-rocket booster like on the Shuttle, mainly the provide business for the company making those solid-rocket boosters. It seems like the solid-rocket booster selection was largely a political pork-barrel consideration of keeping key constituencies and support groups happy, but it is creating major, major engineering problems with each of these rockets. The smaller of the two rockets is supposed to be the "passenger rocket" to lift the crew out of orbit, and that rocket is discussed within the advocacy community to have a slew of unsolvable technical problems, over which NASA appears to be in denial, largely stemming from the restriction of using a solid rocket, among them, that it may not be powerful enough to launch the size spacecraft NASA has in mind.
Don Oltmann alluded to similar things within the Amtrak sphere, especially within the Acela program. On account of being a government program, there too there were specs driven by a political process, specs that only shaved minutes off the trip time, but specs that appeared to be handed down on stone tablets, which made the train overweight, overpowered (to squeeze a few minutes off the schedule), and over-expensive.
I hear you about the Amtrak fleet being overaged and undermaintained, but I don't think that being "underfunded" counts -- everybody, regardless of their budget, believes themselves to be underfunded for what they are expected to do. If you are in business and underfunded long enough, you just go out of business whereas in government, you clank along and ask for more funds all the time. And if the train cars are undermaintained, it could speak to 1) not enough money to maintain the cars, but 2) if Amtrak has received subsidy money over the years, where does that money go if not to maintain the cars, and 3) if the money required to maintain railroad cars far exceeds what you can collect through fares, does this not suggest either some problem with the concept of passenger trains or perhaps that the what maintenance is performed is not cost-effective?
Are there some specific areas where, owing to the political nature of the government funding and oversight, Amtrak is not conducting operations according to principles that would be apparent to a reasonable person? Again, the reason I mention this is that there are blogs where you could go into the minutia of what the space advocacy community thinks NASA is doing wrong, but the train advocacy community appears to "circle the wagons" as it were and argue that there is nothing wrong with Amtrak that couldn't be fixed with a larger appropriation. Were Amtrak to get the same amount of money as NASA, would they do right, or are the things they would get wrong with larger budgets?
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Maybe I'm thickheaded, but I do not understand your comments about NASA. What has this got to do with Amtrak.
As long as I can remember I have been interested in passenger trains. When I went to Europe and Japan and saw how they run trains I always wondered why we do it the way we do. Someone has got to wake up to the fact that trains anywhere will not make a profit. Why can't people understand this? Passenger trains are labor-intensive. Each car has to have an attendant even though I don't understand why but that's the way it is. You can't just have a door way open at the station and expect people, the passenger to get on sitdown and go to where they are going without someone telling them where to sit pick up their tickets and make sure they get off at the right place. Yes I guess a lot of automation could come into being but so far I've seen nothing. Train crews want to put people where they want them because it's easier for them to know where they are.
Look at the sleeping cars we have an attendant on each car that makes the beds puts them down when the passenger wants them down and all over waits on them. What do you expect for paying the price that you are paying to sleep on a train. The cars of today that we ride on were talking about over $1 million apiece. How do we pay for the car and make a profit at the same time with labor and maintenance and all over operation of the car. So we have to wake up to the fact that the price of the ticket will not cause a profit at what we are charging. I have heard some yo-yos Say that if it can't make a profit that should not be run. Okay I agree let's close down the airlines, bus lines, commuter trains,trucks and long-distance trains because none of them make a profit. The airlines are subsidized because we the taxpayers pay for the operation people. The truck and bus lines run on highways made by taxpayers, commuter trains are subsidized by state governments so yes I agree let's shut it all down so that taxpayers will not have to subsidize any form of transportation. Okay now you want to go to and Sally's house for Thanksgiving. How do you get there by horse and buggy on a dirt path? The only answer to all of this is subsidy which is a form of socialism. Is this what we want? I don't know of any way other than the way we're doing it but things could be run a lot different.
In all the years I've been around the railroad industry I can see what's going on and I don't like it at all but who am I, just a grunt. I can't look up to any leadership because there is none. Our government hasn't the faintest idea of how to choose a leader you can see what's happened this last election the people can't choose a leader either. In my 54 year career in the railroad industry I've seen a lot of good people shoved in a hole because they lacked the political know-how. You're looking at one, the person who is writing this as a perfect example of political disaster. I never joined the club as to say and I paid dearly for this. The pity party is over now and in my semi-retirement years I can look at the industry and say what's on my mind to whoever will hear it. A word I use or a few words I use is leadership and responsibility. These words are not in the vocabulary of most of the so-called leaders of today just to give you an example look at Congressman Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. now VP Biden. Would you want these idiots to run your company and I can give you a positive NO from me. I wouldn't want them in my house but yet the idiot American people vote them back in time and time again Dod has been there for 24 years. But that's not why I'm writing this. I'm more interested in Amtrak .
Mr. Alex Kumant I believe could've been a breath of fresh air if he was given the chance by these mindless people on the Amtrak board. Until someone somewhere is found to be a responsible type leader it will be more of the same as it is today. Amtrak cannot make it alone just like the air lines, bus lines. and truck lines are doing. If you could come up with a better idea I noticed lots of people would listen if you are in the right side of the political points of view. I saw good people, yes great people that could have made it work but their idea was squelched because the person who squelched that said I didn't think of that so I won't let John Doe get his two cents in and make me look like a fool. Politics in business is the destroyer of good people. I can remember Graham Claytor president of Amtrak saying you'll only get ahead in this company by your qualifications. Talk is cheap. I respected Mr. Claytor in many ways but not that comment that he made, because people did go up the ladder that were absolutely useless I saw this first hand. My boss was a shop teacher in the Cleveland school district and Ohio came to Amtrak as a director of dining car menus and when they abolished his job they put this man over me in transportation and told me that we can't fire him we had to give him a job so will you train him? Was I given a choice? He was one of the useless idiots that dragged down this company. He stated to me many times that he hated Amtrak and wished he could get out and go somewhere else. As far as I know he retired from Amtrak this is just one story I have hundreds of them about the people in the railroad industry. Again leadership where is it? Responsibility who is responsible and what is done about when a man or woman is found to be irresponsible. The Clintons got away with murder. I could name names but what good would it do half of them are retired and Amtrak paid a high price for their so-called leadership. Until something changes I don't see Amtrak will have a chance or the American people will not be given a chance for modern high-speed, comfortable, clean, on time railroad transportation just more of the same.
I still ride Amtrak when I get a chance I took my granddaughter from San Antonio to Dallas couple months ago and was almost embarrassed to answer her questions about the condition of the car that we were on. The rugs were soaked with some sticky probably a soda spilled on it. The windows were filthy the bathrooms were clean but the toilet seat was broken the valves for the water one was missing the tabletop at the sink was broken in many places and the smell was unbearable. Don't forget this car was cleaned in San Antonio as they have forces there to do this. The comment I got was they didn't have enough people to do the job properly. Excuses excuses, excuses is all you ever hear who is responsible for this why wasn't he or she discharged because the train look like it did. Why don't we just get a boxcar and punch some windows in it and some wooden chairs and call it a day. Amtrak wrote the book of excuses, well not just Amtrak I think the airlines had a role in this to. I could go on about the airlines to as I've had to fly quite often in my consulting business. I wish I could've ridden Amtrak as bad as it is rather than fly in the friendly skies. Passenger transportation in this country is terrible and not getting any better. What is the answer, leadership and responsibility, that's all I have to say.
Whether in either the public or private sector, a certain amount of in-house politics is going to be played in climbing the ladder above the first level of management. While this means that some unqualified persons who are political sharks will climb and some able people who are unwilling to become someone else's protege will get left behind, it does foster a certain amount of positive loyalty both up and down and generally works for the good of the organization.
WOW, I thought I would see some comment like I have in this last letter from Paul. I don't agree at all with his last sentence which says" it does foster a certain amount of positive loyalty both up and down and generally works for the good of the organization." This is complete bull I don't understand positive loyalty both up and down. All I know is in all the years I've worked and I'm still working I still see this going on. I'm very fortunate now to where I can tell these politicians or managers in a higher category to more or less take this job and shove it I don't want it anymore. I packed my bags and leave when they want me to get involved in the politics of their company. I haven't had to quit but two times since 1991 because of politics.
I have never seen the so-called term politics actually make a company any better, all I see is a company loses some good people as they packed their bags and leave. Paul take the rose-colored glasses off and look at your company like you are an outsider. In the years I've been in a certain company I've had a chance to judge in my opinion who is good and who isn't, I see the people that are not what I would call my chosen people I have seen them go up the ladder because of their arrogant attitude or poor temperament. I've seen it with my own eyes and I watch them in a year or so crashed to the bottom and disappear from our company. But why did it take two years to finish him.How did the man get the job to start with. I find some ways to move up the ladder is that you play golf with the boss. You take him out to dinner buy them drinks just show all over friendship and a few months later I see that person move up. This is what I mean about leadership there isn't any.
You said
Anything that the government puts there hands on they destroy it
I said, perhaps there are lessons learned about other government programs such as NASA, and you said
What NASA has got to do with Amtrak is that NASA is "Amtrak in Space." It is a lot more like Amtrak than one would think. It has a small, vocal advocacy community. It has critics who would like to do away with it. It has a larger public that is largely indifferent to the whole operation. It perceives itself to be seriously underfunded for the mission it has been given, but a lot of people who favor what it does believes it could spend money more wisely.
What I don't understand about your position is that 1) government is required to help pay for the trains because "trains never make a profit", but that 2) government is ruining the trains because there is a lack of "leadership" to keep the trains clean and to change out the broken toilet seats. If something is unable to operate at a profit, it is also going to operate without the profit motive, and I guess you are suggesting that an inspired leader could substitute for the guiding hand of profits and loss to make all the right decisions?
If one makes the point too vigorously that trains are never profitable, are intrinsically expensive, and require large amounts of direct government subsidy, one is making the critics' case.
"But all of those other guys are getting subsidy", and indeed they are, and the original Amtrak idea was that small boost in the way of subsidy would level the playing field. That small boost has grown to a steady diet, and if we subsidized autos at the rate that we subsidize Amtrak passengers on a cents-per-mile basis, we would be spending a cool trillion dollars a year on roads, and you know that even when we pool Federal, state, and local, we are spending a small fraction of that amount.
But at some point, even government programs have to be measured against some standard of effectiveness of how they spend their money, otherwise the political support will dry up.
HUH? Amtrak is a Quazi government concern.I never said the government is to pay subsides, I said who else will pay a subsidy, the private sector? Why would the private sector pay for anything other that what they own to make a profit! The idea of Amtrak to begin with is wrong. I have always said "Let the railroad's run the passenger train and the government subsidize them to pay for what it cost to operate them on their railroad, labor and operations cost. The locomotives and cars would be able to operate on anybody's railroad financed by government subsidies again as any transportation business is today.
I don't like this idea of subsidies for any business. I can't see why the taxpayer should be responsible for any business. If they can't make it on their own, the best ideas to fold up and forget it. As I said yesterday there is no transportation business today that is self-supporting. Yes we could have a locomotive and some cars that wanders all around the country stopping at stations day and night with nobody on board and let the people shift for themselves. No diner, no sleeper no lounge car no employees on a train except the engineer in the front and a conductor at the rear and maybe with a schedule that people could see at the station only to cut down on printing cost. This kind of operation would make a profit but nobody in their right mind would ride the train like this.
So where are we now. The government is the only way out if we want high-speed comfortable, clean equipment on the trains we ride. But as usual the government does everything half assed. The trains are dirty outside and inside, employees walk around like they're another world, the food service is adequate but that's all you can say for it. At least you don't starve on the train. Let's talk about food service on a train. The food served on plastic plates like you find in a grocery store plastic utensils and food that tastes like plastic. Our great government our wise government states that Amtrak is is in the transportation business not the restaurant business so we have what we have now. Do congressmen and senators sit at table with no tablecloth and eat off of plastic utensils? Really doubt it they sit down and eat with sterling silver utensils and probably the best china that can be bought. In the lounge car the attendant gives you a hamburger that is half ice and a half burned and puts it in a cardboard container with a aluminum can for something to drink and you have to walk maybe two or three car lengths to your seat or if you're lucky there is a table open in the lounge car. This kind of food service will again never make a profit. The car that is the dining car is close to the price of a locomotive on the head end in dollars and today with all these government regulations at the car has to be equipped for wheelchair service and all other things that the government deems to put on this already expensive car is now jacked the price of the car over the cost of the locomotive on the head end.
Let's go to the sleeping car this car also cost approximately the cost of the locomotive on the head end and contains a bunch of rooms. I see some motels or hotels with four-star ratings in certain cities will cost almost $200 a night. I don't know rates anymore today I used to know but I believe the cost per sleeper is probably over $200 plus transportation for a night. This price would no more pay for what it costs for the cost of the new car, labor and the cost for pulling the car in a train.
We have already seen privatized passenger trains and none of them have been a success. Oh yes did you ever see what it cost to ride one of these beautiful trains? These private passenger trains rarely head coaches they were usually made up of all sleeping accommodations were one car would have maybe 10 roomets and cars with bedrooms. But the fare to ride one of these trains halfway across the country would be in the 4 to 5 maybe $6000 range. Who can afford this?
You speak of NASA being like Amtrak, I don't think so. I don't think NASA is as slipshod as Amtrak is. I don't believe you have managers that are going to send a man to the moon that are not experienced in what they do. When I worked for Amtrak I used to wonder that if it wasn't for the working man, How trains ran at all was a miricle, because if it was up to the management to make decisions to run trains, that just didn't happen. The men made the decisions and did what they do best. Again my favorite comment, leadership..... is something Amtrak does not have at this moment.
If you look at what this new president of the USA is doing now. In his blabbering election speeches he kept speaking about a need for CHANGE and as of today this idiot is picking people for his cabinet that the Clintons appointed. Where is this change he speaks of.? If this is an idea of how Amtrak is going to in the run in the next four years, hold onto your hat things are going to get a lot worse. I have no confidence whatsoever in the leadership of the Federal, State and Local governments.
Loosing Alex Kommant is something that should not have happened because I don't see anyone anywhere that's qualified to run Amtrak except maybe managements of the class 1-2 railroads, but I'm sure they wouldn't leave a well-run nongovernment entity railroad to operate Amtrak all I can say is God help us in the years ahead of us.
First, Amtrak needs another "true believer" to run the company. Someone who believes that trains are useful and has a clue about railroading. As has been pointed out, that's a pretty small pool to fish from.
Second, Amtrak needs to be reformed. Not those silly political "privatization" or "dismemberment" reforms that have been floated out there from time to time, but some internal ones where the company as a whole and individuals or groups specifically have a reason to care, do better and improve the company. There are a bunch of ways to do this. All one has to do is look at private industry. None of these ways is perfect, but they're all better than what's going on now.
Third, the company needs some goals and/or guiding principals that those holding the keys to the kingdom will see as valuable. Make them as measurable as possible and then set up rewards in steps towards the goal.
Something like:
"We are Amtrak. This is what we do:
1. xxx
2. yyy
3. zzz
We'll know we're doing it right when we see:
1. xxxx
2. yyyy
From today's paper:
Amtrak on Tuesday tapped the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration to lead the national passenger railroad for a year.
Joseph Boardman replaces Chief Executive Alex Kummant, who resigned Nov. 14 after two years marked by significant growth in ridership and revenue.
Boardman, 59, has spent his career working on transportation issues at all levels of government. He takes over as president and CEO on Wednesday and will serve for one year, Amtrak's board of directors announced. A search will begin in the coming months for a permanent replacement.
"I am keenly aware of the challenges facing us right now," Boardman said in a statement. "In my view, a national intercity, interconnected passenger rail service is critically important for the mobility and energy independence of the United States."
Ross Capon, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, described Boardman as a "knowledgeable and hard-nosed leader" who will push for passenger rail funding as part of any federal stimulus package involving infrastructure.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I, for one, applaud the naming of Joe Boardman as Amtrak president...his was the first name that came to my mind when Kummant departed. I have been a "fan" of Boardman, if you will, since before he became NYS DOT Comissioner. He understands railroads, he understands the passenger business, and he understands politics; he has had experiences from county level transportation problems and programs right up through his most recent FRA post. I think he will prove a very wise choice for the intrim, and hopefully will be considered permanent in due time.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Mr. Boardman held a Presidential appointment, so he was out of a job this coming January 20th. I'd be more comfortable with the selection if it were someone who was not about to become unemployed.
On a related issue, I have heard speculation that a longtime Biden staffer would be appointed to fill the remainder of the Senator's term. Essentially, his job would be to serve as a placeholder until the next election, at which time Amtrak Board member Hunter Biden would run for the seat.
Yes, heard the Biden story, too. But I hope Boardman's credentials are taken into account when the time comes for permenancy in this post...I believe he will do us all good.
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