Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
Passenger
»
If I were the head of Amtrak what would you do

Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
The probability of realizing my entire plan, especially in the short run, if I were the president of Amtrak is slim.  But the probability of achieving a lot of change plans has been even slimmer.    In 1776 few people gave the American colonists much of a chance against the British Empire, with the greatest navy the world had ever seen.  In 1989 no one predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall that year or the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union.  Both are history.  Stranger things than reforming Amtrak have happened.  Nations, states, businesses, individuals that refuse to change eventually die, if they are lucky, or they are pushed out of the way, sometimes violently.  With a positive labor relations model, the unions might come around.  I am only talking about doing away with the long distance trains.  Moreover, if additional corridors were developed, e.g. Dallas to Houston, Fort Worth to San Antonio, Tucson to Phoenix, etc., many of the long distance trains employees could work on the new corridor trains.  I would pay for their relocation.  If the unions just planted their feet in the ground and refused to change for refusal sake, I would take a strike until the issue is resolved.  Amtrak has a small user group, especially outside of the NEC.  The majority of Americans could care less about it.  They would not even miss it.  It is the overly wrought politicians who would be the real stumbling block.I worked in a union company for most of my life.  We had a reasonably good labor relations environment.  This was due in part to the fact that management worked closely with the unions when change was necessary.  Sometimes it took a long time for them to come around, but at the end of the day they did because the leadership knew that if the company went down the drain they were going with it.    For FY ended September 30, 2007, Amtrak had a net operating loss before interest and depreciation of $309.7 million.  The long distance trains lost $440.4 million before interest and depreciation.  Dividing 440.4 by 309.7 gives a result of 142.2 rounded down.  The reason the net loss is less than the loss incurred by the long distance trains is because the NEC covered its operating or variable expenses and contributed $258.3 million to interest and depreciation.
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