Amtrak "Fire Sale Article" on Railway Age website

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DSS&A

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Aug 21, 2015
Messages
422
Here is an interesting article to read about Amtrak and it's current sale practice.  The lack of information from the current leadership on the direction they are taking our intercity passenger rail service is a huge concern.  We are the "shareholders" of this railroad and they are sharing no information with the public. 

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/amtraks-second-fire-sale-in-a-year/
 
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I think that any credible point made by the author in his self-contradictory, poorly researched, and outwardly misleading rant was stumbled upon by accident.

He claims that Amtrak has simultaneously pushed native advertising via mass media pieces while also "trash[ing] its own product."  He claims that Amtrak ignores GAAP when their own auditor says that their statements are "in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles." He suggests that California "take the next step and lease [its] own equipment," apparently blissfully unaware that the state has done so already for several decades.  He claims that there is no longer a staffed lounge car, which is depending on your definition of lounge either completely false or a state of being that has extended for far longer than his bogeyman Richard Anderson has led Amtrak.  He claims that Amtrak "continues to ignore advising passengers in its advertising that the Silver Star lost its diner" when Amtrak's Silver Service page states quite clearly that "food service is limited to meals purchased in the Café/Lounge car."  He claims that Anderson has "set a course to intentionally dilute revenue in peak periods" via reducing consists without any data points to support the claim, nor any attempt at a cost/benefit analysis, and in complete contradiction of Amtrak's continued addition of service and capacity this past Thanksgiving, as it does every year.

The man is a disgrace to journalism, and Railway Age should be ashamed to publish such misleading trash under its name.  An op-ed is one thing, a piece that has failed at basic fact-checking in support of its arguments is quite another.  Unfortunately, Railway Age seems to be committed to an editorial philosophy of throwing anything negative possible at Amtrak, with truth an optional component.
 
Stephen Gardner used three bullets to make his case, first two are listed below.  Both are IMHO are very much misleading, the third is about Britain rail that is very technical issues and would be also misleading.  

All three issue are well know to the community of people who follow the subject.

  • A Midwestern state’s 2015 privatization of equipment and food service on an Amtrak state-supported route ended when the private service provider sought increased subsidies after only 17 months.
  • Two Congressionally-mandated DOT solicitations for development of high-speed services on the NEC, and a FAST Act-required solicitation that offered large subsidies to entities willing to take over Amtrak long-distance routes, did not attract a single private sector proposal.
 
The man is a disgrace to journalism, and Railway Age should be ashamed to publish such misleading trash under its name.  An op-ed is one thing, a piece that has failed at basic fact-checking in support of its arguments is quite another.  Unfortunately, Railway Age seems to be committed to an editorial philosophy of throwing anything negative possible at Amtrak, with truth an optional component.
Essentially, this.  But the money these days is in cane-waving old folks pining for days gone by.

Don't get me wrong, there is a ton to complain about with respect to Amtrak, but it works better when those criticisms are based in reality.
 
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