“A successor to Amtrak President Graham Claytor could be named by March 1, according to the Journal of Commerce, which named four candidates – William S. Norman, Amtrak executive vice president and reportedly Claytor’s favorite; Charles W. Hoppe, Long Island Rail Road president; Michael Haverty, former Santa Fe president; and David Gunn, the embattled general manager of Washington Metro, who announced yesterday he would not stay beyond the March 1994 expiration of his contract.”
I believe Claytor stayed on one more year and then resigned when his health failed. At that point Tom Downs got the job, and if I am not mistaken, did not get much, if any, support from the Clinton Administration and was stymied by Congress. At that point Warrington brought in his smoke and mirrors team. “Glide Path to Self Whatever”
In fairness it should be pointed out that the Warrington team counted on the Acela service, Express Freight service and marketing efforts to make the turn. It could be said that the expectations were unreasonably high and further the ability to manage the new directions simply was not there.
As for Gunn, at that time I am not sure he was ever advanced beyond the short list. I vaguely recall a Trains magazine item indicating that he really didn’t want to have to deal with the demands of umpteen unions.
At the Washington Metro, he was able to get the Board to advance the timetable for the last stage of construction of the system. That and his management of the project together resulted in considerable savings to taxpayers. Once the difficult stuff was done, the Metro Board started to make more political type demands on the operation. That is the kind of micro management interference that Gunn, like many top managers, finds unacceptable.
Not too much to think about. What happened, happended.
thinking about Who was considered, and who wasn’t…
Seeing Gunn considered that long ago, only to not make it…then making it in later, only to be fired for trying to do the job right…makes me think.
The success of Amtrak has never been a primary focus of the program, it all has been a smoke screen, and little more.
The fools are the ones who ask "what will it take to fix amtrak?’ As if that were a priority of ANYONE actually in a position to decide.
I don’t think that Amtrak even IS a passenger railroad.
What it always has been, is a subterfuge. An instrument designed to keep the traditionalists from screaming bloody murder when passenger rail was a setting sun, 40 years ago. Like a giant $40 billion pacifier.
“When I was on the Board the legendary W. Graham Claytor, Jr. was president
of Amtrak. In 1992 Claytor announced his retirement and I was appointed to a
committee chaired by Philadelphia lawyer David Girard DiCarlo to find a
replacement. I reached David Gunn at his home in Nova Scotia and pitched the
Amtrak Presidency to him. Had he accepted I would have gone to the wall for
him. Alas, he declined. When President William J. Clinton was elected,
Claytor chose not to retire and remained Amtrak President for another year,
illness then forcing his retirement.”