Join the discussion on the following article:
Amtrak’s chief engineer resigns
I imagine coming from a private company for profit, then going to govt work was quite the wakeup as far as how slow things are at govt. level.
I’m with Mr. Reid - as a federal employee myself, I understand what it’s like to work for a huge bureaucracy where the last thing on anyone’s mind is excellence. Instead, it’s about “optics”, political correctness, and kissing the rear ends of 535 Representatives and Senators. Mr. Pohlot probably got sick of all the BS and left rather than lose his sanity.
Bruce worked for Amtrak before going to PB. I worked with him in LA. Strange things going on at Amtrak since I retired in 2011.
Well said, Mr. Wheeler.
“pursue other opportunities.”
ha ha…corporate speak for being fired, wonder what happened?
Sounds like a challenging job!
Wouldn’t surprise me if Pohlot saw a late draft of the PRRIA, saw the huge capital cuts in it (directly affect virtually everything Pohlot was involved in), and decided he’d had enough of 538+100 idiots micromanaging an industry they know nothing about.
Dan Wheeler is 100% spot -on!!
Paul & Dan; you guys hit the nail right on the head. No point going down with the ship!
Too bad. Another career loused up resulting in the reported pursuit of “other opportunities.” The guy could have been abrasive of course. But more likely he found the organization sucked the life out of him as speculated by more opinions. While Amtrak isn’t in an easy spot with so many forces to please, it apparently considers some of its employees as expendable as patrons. Not a racket most of us would want to join.
Mr Pohlot was Div Eng on the BOS Div and then was promoted to PHL and then to CA., before Parsons. He always tried to do the right thing the right way, but Amtrak doesn’t think that way. You can only take so much frustration.
I don’t know much about the laws governing the monopoly of Amtrac as the passenger rail service in the USA. But does anybody reading this story know anything about or have any thoughts on the possible re privatization of passenger rail service in the USA? Is it possible at any level in this country? I am intrigued by the rapid growth of short-line freight rail service as well as the Type 1 major freight rail service in the USA. I know that passenger rail has generally been a money loser historically. In some cases tourist passenger lines are being kept alive by small freight operations that bring in enough revenue to keep these tourist passenger lines running. Any comments?