Don Phillips scathing attack on Amtraks Lack of Leadership when most needed

The President of Amtrak is ont the same as President of BNSF or CSX or anyother railroad for that matter. Working in the private sector is much different than in the public sector, and in this case Boardman has an extra burden of being appointed for only one year which ends this month. He has worked in the political arena for years in NY from municipal to state elevations but, as I said earlier, Washington is different. There are many reasons he has not been vocal or public especially over the last six or so months. So what happens by the end of this month is very important and is the tell tale.

By the way, I don’t think Phillips said anything more in his column this month than that he was dissapointed in that Boardman has not been public and vocal. As has been indicated, Phillips is a well respected and accepted journalist in the transportation field and not a contimporary yellow hack looking to kill somebody’s career over a misplaced hat. You don’t have to agree with him, but you can’t attack his integrity and sincerity.

As for HSP and VHSP being “pie in the sky”. Yes, in this country it probably is. We are a country that could benefit greatly in so many ways should we have such rail service. But since we are hung up on it being a private enterprise device to garner big profits (lets face it, 20% or less return on investment within a year in this country is a turn off in the private sector) or it shouldn’t be considered because it evidently isn’t worth it. Thank goodness our Forefathers never thought that way or we’d still be back in the 1700’s socially and economically. And it’s not just high speed rail that we need think about in these terms in this country.

The general superintentdant of the pacific division, along with some other high ranking managers from the pacific side, were terminated on 10/12/09.

No. He said ALL that Boardman was was “public and vocal” and that there was no action behind the words.

Yes. God bless’em for giving us the Tennessee-Tombigbee!

So, the path to success in the public sector is to do nothing? If you do something, somebody might not like it and get you fired? To get reappointed, don’t do anything? And then, when you are reappointed, keep not doing anything, so you don’t get fired? Is that what you’re saying? Even Downs and Warrington did SOMETHING! (it was bad, but it wasn’t nothing)

I’m not attacking Phillips. I think he’s right that Boardman has been a dissapointment… Amtrak’s ship has come in, Boardman talks about seeing it arrive and how wonderful it will be, but won’t get on board (ooh. There’s a pun there somewhere…) The first lines of Phillip’s column: “It is time for Joseph Boardman to either act like a leader or move on. Amtrak needs leadership, and none is evident now.” Some more: “Many of them (Amtrak employees) are working hard on plans to be ready for the future. They only await orders from the top.”

The one thing that everyone continues to overlook about Amtrak. From it’s inception by Congress it has been designed to fail. The fact that it still exists is a testament of leadership to all those that have held the top leadership position…imagine defying Congress’s intent for the past 38 years.

Sorry, but I don’t think dirigibles will fly! (Groan! Sorry…) Maybe if they can fill them with all the “excess” carbon dioxide in the air, saving mankind (and polar bears) from a horrible fate…

Here, in Shelby, MT we have a horse feed lot, containing thousands of aged/un-wanted/wild horses. They await a truck trip to the Fort MacLeod, Alberta abbatoir and a nice flight on “Air Canada” to France, where they will be consumed by the denizens therein. Has anyone thought of hooking these critters up to wagons, or just getting on their backs to go to the grocery store? Might work. I’m sure GM could figure out a way to build wagons… Well, maybe. With Studebaker gone, there ain’t much expertise in the area. Come on Fiat…, er…Chrysler. You can do it!

I wouldn’t necessarily say it was designed to fail, but it certainly wasn’t designed to suceed.

It all depends on the definition of “fail” and “succeed”.

Several people have noted that Nixon’s team met (not very) secretly to plan the Rail Passeger Service Act, which was designed to take over the money-losing passenger business from the railroads and then in turn quietly go under (designed to fail). Louis Menk of the BN was upset when Fortune exposed the scheme. The history of Amtrak is rife with Congressional interference, chronic under-funding and mostly lackluster management. It’s a miracle it has survived this long.

I just reread Phillips’ editorial as well as some others by him in recent issues. “Scathing” hardly seems an appropriate term; it was critical, certainly, overly impatient perhaps.

Designed to fail? Maybe! A better assessment can be found in the program which was laid on Amtrak’s management. Had the architects eliminated the long distance trains, which provide a relatively small share of the revenues whilst eating a disproportionate share of the operating expenses, and concentrated on a few corridors, where passenger trains have a chance for success, the results probably would have been different.

With some minor tweaking of the fare and cost structure, Amtrak could cover its operating expenses and contribute a significant amount to the fixed costs on its relatively short corridor routes.

Unfortunately, Amtrak is a political animal, which contains the seeds of its inability to be at least a partially commercial success. It has been whipsawed by political forces rather than run as a response to market demand for passenger rail services.

Ironically, many of the people in the advocacy groups, who profess to love trains, have contributed to Amtrak’s many problems through their 1950s. perspectives. They keep insisting on running trains based on a bygone model that have no chance whatsoever of being viable.

I really think we should reject the whole “Nixon-conspired-to-fail-Amtrak” theory.

History doesn’t add this up. I sure would like to know how they were able to immediately purchase Turboliners and continue the Metroliner if that were really true. And the E-series electrics, and AEM-7, and Amfleet series one and two, and Viewliner, and Superliner.

Oh, and while I’m at it, allowing a pro-passenger-rail firebrand like the great Graham Claytor to run the system at all.

I really think this theory should be laid to rest.

Amtrak was built on the recognition by the USA that other countries already realized: that passenger rail is subsidized just like all other passenger modes are and should not be allowed to become extinct.

I for one still believe that Amtraks biggest problem was the far to early retirement of the cars they received from the RRs at the beginning of Amtrak.

Canada has proven that the Budd cars that were built in the 1950s can serve well today just as the did when first purchased. They are are going through a second extension of life at the present time which should keep them running until at least 2035. The bodies have held up extremely well and the interiors though expensive are easily replaced. HEP was already installed in these cars years ago and even all liquid waste is contained within the cars and pumped out in route at certain station stops. .

Amtrak was to anxious to show the world that they could bring new equipment to the public when certain routes should probably be still operating with Heritage equipment. For one thing we would not be wasting money on additional Viewliners. We would still have plenty of 10-6s in service to meet any needs for holiday rush and additional sleepers would be available for eastern trains. The Capitol Limited could still be operated with Budd consists instead of Superliners freeing up those cars for western trains.

For very little money from Amtraks budget they could make minor track improvements that would speed up a number of trains making it possible to speed up certain western schedules. I am thinking of the Coast Starlight in particular. Thers is no reason that four sets of equipment should be tied up for this train when with a modest speed up three sets of equipment could do the job. Look at the timing of the train today between Oakland and Portland. The SP Cascade and Shasta Daylights operated on faster timings then todays Coast Starlight and that was in the 1950"s. Other than the Coast line ther is not much scenery to be seen on this route and a substantial speed up would free up one set of equipment and encourage more people to take the train than do to

Dam…, oops! I had better say “Darn”, to keep the SD-MN-WI moderators off my a**. Such silliness! Anyhoo, your post is great! I travel on the “Empire Builder” a lot. I do like the “Superliner” sleepers. I also prefer the “Viewliner” sleepers, with their limited capacity a given, and the surly attendants, in the east, a given, too. The “Viewliners” could do without the in-room TV’s, IMO. Our “Superliner” ‘Sightseer Lounges’ are rarely filled, given the price of beer ($5.50 / bottle!), but the NPS volunteers give a bit of a break, getting the kids to look out the windows, instead of playing board games. “Wow! An antelope!”, “Wow! A cow!”. I was a Budd “Slumbercoach” fan. Lots of capacity, compared to the “Viewliners”. Cheaper, too. Is there a “Retirement Home” for such cars? Canada has truly demonstrated that they aren’t ready for retirement. Amtrak’s full-dome car, that runs on the “Adirondack” during the fall foliage season, could be added to the CZ. It does need a new paint scheme, but they could do that when they take the plastic wrap off of it. Ugly, that was! There are other “full domes” around. The “Capitol Limited” doesn’t need “Superliners”. You can tell SEN Byrd that! Lot’s of luck!

Okay. What/where are the old cars in the “boneyard”? Might even pry Mr. Boardman out of DC to look at them (doubt it!). Has he ever been on an Amtrak train? David Gunn, he is not! Maybe if he gets a permanent appointment… Just some thoughts.

Yes, its a known fact that Amtrak was designed to relieve American railroads of having to run passenger trains. And that it was thought that with huge sums of monies going to highway and airline maarketing, why, then, the passenger train will just fade out of existance. It was a payoff to big business railroading to rid them of the albatross so that they could capture the gold of freight traffic with no encomberance. What the solons of public service failed to realize was that the public wanted and needed rail passenger service despite thier efforts to sell them the alternatives. Nixon and company crafted the machinery to remove the burden of passengers from the private sector with the idea that it need not be funded, peopled, or otherwise supported because it was supposed to just go away. Those who were selected to serve were chosen for the publicity of thier past endeavors, given a rah rah cheer, then litrally turned loose. When these leaders came back to the Feds with the story that passenger trains and passenger services were both needed and wanted, they lost favor and were soon gone.

So now we can blame Bush for the lack of leadership in Amtrak----[:-^]

And we now have people who think governments have a role in HSR----

  1. I agree about the Budd 10 and 6’s, especially since many already incurred the expense for conversion to head end power and retention toilets. That money should not have been wasted, and those cars kept as a reserve fleet. Ditto Budd coaches. And diners and lounges.

  2. I too was a Slumbercoach fan, rode them on the Denver Zephyr, the de-Pullmaned Century, after Amtrak’s start the Broadway, the Backhawk, the Mainstreeter or North Coast Limited, a B&O train between Pittsburgh and Washington, the New England States many times, the Wolverine, and the “Steel Fleet” predicessor to the Lake Shore. But Amtrak found converting to retention toilets was to be extremely expensive and amount to a major rebuilding. I have to forgive them.

  3. Most of your other comments make sense. Some of the best scenery between Portland and Oakland is now at night anyway.

I am all for high-speed rail, but I favor an incremental approach, that improves freight capacity at the same time, and that gets the most for the whole country for each amount spent. I continue to think a national network remains absolutely necessary. I also favor lots of coordibnation with buses.

When people point and shake thier fingers at us pro rail passenger advocates, be it HSR or what, for comparing the US to European or Asian systems and tell us we are not Europe or Asia, I can only think that they are more interested in saving thier status quo butts rather than meeting the world head on. I mean if Europe or Japan or China can run high speed passenger and higher than our frieght speeds, then why can’t we have a duel system. I hate to point to the legal trade as placing fear in the pocketbooks of railroads and government, but that is often the case. If you don’t want to run a company to provide the service you are named for, then go make pizzas!

Good rant here![:-,] The only problem here is that this sounds more like a 'teen’s waah about the fact that everyone else is wearing Tommy Hilfiger and why can’t I?!?!?

I want to see a business model that’ll work without necessarily wacking the taxpayer such that whatever economic benefits aren’t clobbered by the tax rates needed. There seems to be a lot more people living in Europe than here remember-----[swg]

Thank you! I can’t stand the argument of “Europe and Asia have high speed rail, so America should too.”

Its not a matter that we should have it because others have it but because we need it. We need it to stay competitive with the rest of the world. We hear from so many rah rah Americans who are just feeling good about themselves and thier past rather than seeing the future for those who haven’t arrived yet. I know, I know, if we need it, then somebody who can make a buck doing it should do it; and if he can’t make a buck, we don’t need it. I just don’t buy into that self serving complacency. We send jobs overseas, we import parts and whole products, we borrow money from overseas, we are allowing overseas to overtake us. When are we going to take our own fate into our own hands? If we don’t, then we don’t have to worry about paying for it as we will be some other country’s constituants.