Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
Passenger
»
Amtrak Breaks Even in 2022
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
<p>[quote user="oltmannd"]</p> <p>Contracting out the things that are not your "core" is a great idea. The devil is in the details. You can structure the deal as "command and control" with carefully crafted performance metrics with penalties and bonuses. You will have to decide to what measure, so be pretty careful what you design! Or, you can go the "laisse-faire" route and just let the contractor run that portion of the business, keeping the revenue. (winning bidder is the one who needs the lowest, flat subsidy) [/quote]</p> <p>During the nearly 30 years that I worked for one of the largest electric utilities in North America, we turned the company on its head. We went from owning everything to leasing a great deal of it. We factored receivables, set-up demand bank accounts (negative balances), emphasized conservation in lieu of new power plants, and outsourced most of our non-core functions. The old timers thought that we were nuts. </p> <p>The key is a well defined albeit not perfect contract managed by strong contract managers. If you turn it over to the contractors, even the most honest of them will interpret every ambiguity in the contract to their advantage.</p> <p>I like your notion of more code sharing. As you noted, there are heaps of things Amtrak could do to offer a better service. </p>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy