Railway age which is not all that friendly to Amtrak has published a list of questionable actions by Amtrak. One of the most interesting is the statement that Gardner had a part in drafting the legislation of PRIIA that included the food and beverage break even clause as a congressional staffer. Wonder if he is sturbbon enough to believe that all his ideas will work come H___ or high water ?.
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/35-questions-for-stephen-gardner-care-to-answer-them/
A ringing indictment!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Suspicion I have is Amtrak is supported so heavily by Northeastern politicians is because it funds the Northeast Corridor on a NATIONAL cost basis vs other Corridors where the costs are born by the states the corridors reside in.
I am in agreement with President Trump here. NEC and Gateway project should be regionally funded by the direct beneficiaries and not paid for by the Federal Taxpayers. NEC is not national in scope like the LD train network is. Also, having Amtrak pay for most of the costs of the NEC is not fair to the Midwest HSR consortium which is paying a large chunk of the costs of their Amtrak designated corridors and only gets initial startup money from Congress.
Another railway age article against trump's Amtrak board nominations. Basically they don't like any.
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/fix-amtrak-fix-its-board-first/
blue streak 1Another railway age article against trump's Amtrak board nominations. Basically they don't like any. https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/fix-amtrak-fix-its-board-first/
Railway Age has always been critical of the Amtrak Board, which I believe is supposed to be staffed at 12 and is only staffed at 9 (just guessing here I didn't look). For a number of years Amtrak has run with an understaffed board so if approved this will be one of the rare times Amtrak will run with a full board of directors.
The Amtrak board has a former employee of BNSF, former employee of PATH, an MBA from a securities firm, the Secretary of Transportation, the Amtrak CEO. Right there that is a wealth of diverse experience. I disagree with Railway Age that the board members should mirror each functional area of Amtrak management and it is not the purpose of the board to micromanage Amtrak management at such a level. I can't find many other Corporate boards that are setup that way to mirror the day to day operations of the company they oversee.
As for former political appointees serving on a Corporate Board, that is pretty common across the Fortune 100. Amtrak should not be an exception to that rule, most especially because it is a political company and some knowledge of Congress and or what political institutions expect of Amtrak is pretty key in how the company is managed or operates. You load up the Amtrak board with former railroad managers and they are going to be obstanite, stubborn and generally will tend to pizz off the Congress. That would hurt Amtrak a lot more than who is being appointed now.
Further each Board of Director member of Amtrak as with other Boards is only going to get a token payment for their services and thats it. At Amtrak I read this can range from 96k to 200k. If you think your going to obtain railroaders willing to serve at that low amount of compensation vs accountability in areas of food and beverage, rail operations, etc. Good Luck with that dream. It doesn't happen at other firms either GM has board members from eBay, HP Enterprise, and two from Oil companies I believe. Not a lot of synergy there with experience running General Motors.
So the Railway Age article in my view should be read as a goal to aim for that will probably never be achieved for Amtrak.
CMStPnPCMStPnP wrote the following post 4 hours ago: blue streak 1 Another railway age article against trump's Amtrak board nominations. Basically they don't like any. https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/fix-amtrak-fix-its-board-first/ Railway Age has always been critical of the Amtrak Board, which I believe is supposed to be staffed at 12 and is only staffed at 9 (just guessing here I didn't look). For a number of years Amtrak has run with an understaffed board so if approved this will be one of the rare times Amtrak will run with a full board of directors. The Amtrak board has a former employee of BNSF, former employee of PATH, an MBA from a securities firm, the Secretary of Transportation, the Amtrak CEO. Right there that is a wealth of diverse experience. I disagree with Railway Age that the board members should mirror each functional area of Amtrak management and it is not the purpose of the board to micromanage Amtrak management at such a level. I can't find many other Corporate boards that are setup that way to mirror the day to day operations of the company they oversee.
I think you hit the nail on the head with a strong dose of reality.
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