This is the person that oversaw the Acela High Speed Rail Program - and is no longer part of Amtrak. Is the Acela a success? Or was it just hype?
Acela seems to be a repeat of the Metroliner development of the late 1960’s. Both appear to be the result of a desire to do something strikingly different to appeal to a public that is impressed by overseas passenger service. Too much was promised with both programs and too much was attempted with unreasonably short deadlines. In both cases, incremental approaches to high-speed service would have been better but would have been unlikely to generate much support (Is that all you can accomplish?)
As mentioned above, the public is impressed with overseas high-speed service but is unaware of how long it took to get there so they often expect a dramatic improvement without realizing how much work is actually involved.