Amtrak's Future

[Amfleet]

What do you think the future of Amtrak and passenger rail in America will be? A ride straight to hell or the comforting light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Since the question is what do you THINK will happen....not want you WANT to happen, I voted for number 3. My preference, of course, would be for number 1.

 

[Amfleet]

Since the question is what do you THINK will happen....not want you WANT to happen, I voted for number 3. My preference, of course, would be for number 1.

Just to clarify, that is the intention of this poll. What you think will happen, not what you want to happen (sorry guys). B)

 

[tp49]

Seeing how the Conference Committee hearing went I would speculate the status quo will remain. Amtrak will be fighting for table scraps as usual.

 

[Amfleet]

Seeing how the Conference Committee hearing went I would speculate the status quo will remain.  Amtrak will be fighting for table scraps as usual.

Looks like I will have to start a new poll then. How many times a year will Gunn threaten a shutdown. :lol: This guy is not giving up!!!!

 

[jccollins]

I think once was enough. THE threat, I'm sure, caused the company severe loss of trust from the public and financial damage in the form of lost ticket sales. There were a lot of concerned passengers in Martinez afraid to purchase tickets in advance when the shutdown was threatened. Hopefully Bush got the hint and won't force a shutdown threat again...

:unsure:

 

[Amfleet]

THE threat, I'm sure, caused the company severe loss of trust from the public and financial damage in the form of lost ticket sales.

It was not a threat. Amtrak had absolutely no money to continue operations last Spring and if the government does not give Amtrak enough money now it will happen again!

 

[PRR 60]

Hopefully Bush got the hint and won't force a shutdown threat again...:unsure:

One clarification. President Bush did not force last year’s shutdown threat. He did not do anything that caused that crisis, and it was his administration that ended up bailing out the irresponsible fiscal management of the Warrington era.

In the spring of 2002, Amtrak was operating under an appropriation for fiscal year 2002 of $521 million dollars. It was an appropriation that the George Warrington’s Amtrak had approved as being adequate for the year. It was not. The fact that Amtrak nearly ran out of cash was due to mismanagement and deception by the prior leadership of Amtrak. In fact, when the DOT auditors (under both Clinton and Bush) tried on numerous occasions to blow the whistle on Amtrak’s fiscal condition, Amtrak management circled the wagons and denied up and down that there was any problem. We all remember the “glidepath to self-sufficiency”. What some of us do not remember is the enthusiastic way in which Warrington embraced that goal and how, until the bitter end, he swore that the goal was achievable.

What David Gunn inherited was a financial mess of Enron proportions. When he came in, Amtrak’s books were so fouled-up that no independent auditor would certify the results (which delayed publishing of Amtrak’s annual report for months). His “threat” of shutdown was due to the simple fact that Amtrak was running out of cash (a little detail not disclosed by Warrington when he turned the office over to Gunn). Payroll was seriously threatened. Suppliers were not being paid. Any non-governmental business would have been Chapter 11, at the very least. In the end, Amtrak got a $200 million “loan” from the DOT to bridge to the next fiscal year. That “loan” soon became a grant.

Good people can debate the merits of various plans for the future of passenger rail, but the crisis that faced David Gunn was entirely self-inflicted by Amtrak management. If I were to vote on the one individual who did more than anyone else to harm the future of passenger rail, my vote would go not to George Bush, or John McCain. It would go to George Warrington.

 

[jccollins]

Good point. I am actually glad in a way that John McCain is on their case because it will hopefully lead to a more efficient railroad - I don't think he'll be able to get rid of the long distance trains, but making them more efficient would be better. He seems like a reasonable person (although I have not followed it that much) and has been very receptive to Gunn's new style of management and organization, as well as his system of open books.

 

[amtrakadirondack]

I, myself think that Amtrak will continue for a long time, I wish that something happened that the airlines all died and Amtrak started a their own Rail-to-Air, where Amtrak trains serve all major airports with trains, so that people could take the train, then a plane operated by Amtrak to their destination. that would be cool!

 

[Guest]

Amtrak .... where to begin ...

It is a major frustration that Amtrak cannot develop to provide the USA with the passenger trains it requires.

Perhaps the solution is to enlist the class 1 railroads into a federation to provide passenger trains being able to off set losses against taxes on freight profits, access grants for high speed improvements.

The railroads would work with airlines on 500 mile corridors overing overnight sleeper trains. Could access funding for motorail services as an safer alternative to the highways. Plus would provide the USA with rail services that at least have the appearence of being private, and therefore being culturally more to American tastes.

 

[AlanB]

Two weeks are up, last chance!