Amtrak announces Moorman as new president. Will Fred be happy ? Wonder how the auto router problem hearings will be handled ? Conflict of interest ?d
He is, hands down, the best man for this job. He is a “true believer” in passenger trains.
CEO of NS was his “dream job”. President of Amtrak is his dream post-retirement hobby.
I’ll be he commutes to work on the Norfolk - DC train he helped put in place…
Not my number 1 pick but a great#2!
He’ll be the best we’ve had in a long time to tell yahoos like John Mica what they can do in their hats.
He won’t do that. That’s not his way. He’ll get Amtrak managment squared away, spend a lot of time rallying the troops in the field and schmooze the Hill like mad.
Good move for a change. Looking forward to seeing what he can do at Amtrak.
The big question is " can he get maintenance to have more rolling stock operating and be in a state of good repair ? "
So this means the Sandy Creek will be getting a coat of Platinum Mist and the cigar band, right?[:)]
Which goes to how well he can extract money from Congress. Running Amtrak is less about the equipment, service and employees than it is about dealing with Congress and all it’s spear throwers trying to put an end to the Wooly Mamouth that they percieve Amtrak to be.
Agree. The BIG job is to have sharp, effective answers, as Boardman never did, when ignoramuses like Mica try to tell him how to run the business. This is more important than ever as we move further year by year from a time when passenger trains and the realities of the business were common knowledge.
From my personal observations, which admittedly are confined to mainly west and south of Chicago, Amtrak employees don’t need rallying. They already do a great job (always with the exception of one woman running a diner on the California Zephyr who has also caught the attention of Fred Frailey!).
Moorman demonstrated great finnese in helping NS deflect CP from taking over NS. Probably the sooner he gets on board the better he will be able to deal with congress. Additionally he should be able to deal with the new US president in Amtrak’s favor .
Cannot know the personalities but if Moorman can sit in on Boardman’s final days he may get a jump on the job. Anyone know if he was on the Boardman western trip very low profile ?
He retired in July 2015. Did he continue advising Squires? The CP bid was late in 2015.
Excerpt from Trains newswire, Jan. 22
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2016/01/22-wick-speaks
Moorman — whose retirement as Norfolk Southern’s executive chairman became effective on Dec. 31 — spoke with Trains NewsWire in a wide-ranging telephone interview last week while he was traveling aboard Amtrak’s Acela Express. He was critical of CP’s proposed hostile takeover and its plans to install E. Hunter Harrison as CEO in Norfolk. And he said it’s highly unlikely that NS would pursue a white knight or swallow a poison pill to avoid being acquired by CP…
After stepping down as CEO, Moorman was serving as an NS board member and special advisor to Squires when CP came calling — and leaked stories began appearing in the financial media.
Hopefully, Mica will get a thoughtful response now instead of a mustached grin to his points. I think this guy would have to really work at it to be worse than Boardman though. Huge difference in what a private company demands in the area of job performance vs a Federal Agency like where Boardman came from.
More precisely (from NS newsletter)
Yes. But, it’ll take a while to do.
What gets me is the close questioning that Amtrak has to endure, while the sacred cows, where the real waste and fraud occurs – Social Security disability, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps – get a free pass.
Which is why if someone wants to start a “Throw 'Em All Out!” political party I’ll be one of the first in line to sign up.
What gets me is the way the monied people are constantly demonizing the poor.
[Y][Y][Y]+10, well said Paul.