This is an edited transcript of an interview with David Gunn, Amtrak's president and CEO. D:F's Wes Vernon interviewed Gunn in his Union Station office on July 31. Ed.
By Wes Vernon
Washington correspondent
VERNON: Joe McHugh [Amtrak Director of Government Affairs] told me Monday night prior to the accident in Kensington (where the Capital Limited derailed) you had 92 cars out of service, sitting idle in those yards.
GUNN: Yes, at Beech Grove, but we lost eight more.
VERNON: So you have 100 cars.
GUNN: Well, it's 105 cars, actually...
VERNON: Wow, 105 cars, that?s a lot of equipment.
GUNN: It?s a disaster.
VERNON: You have a bill in Congress while you?re waiting for repairs, but I understand you?re not waiting for that.
GUNN: First of all, we?ve got a loan from DOT for $100 million, then the Congress put in a supplemental appropriations $205 million which is not restricted, it?s just operating cash. It?s not for any specific purpose. This will keep us alive in the fall. We requested $1.2 billion next year in prior appropriation, which is the money that actually the previous management put in. I didn?t change it. It?s tight, but I think it?s doable.
What I had planned to do, to the extent I could, was to make significant reductions in non-essential stuff here at Amtrak and put the money into car rebuilding, track and so forth. That was going to happen. We were going to do that in the 2003 budget, which starts in October.
VERNON: So you do have money to start doing that?
GUNN: Well, whether we have the money or not, WE'RE GOING TO START DOING IT.
VERNON: How can you do it without it the money?
GUNN: Well, what I?m doing is... I have enough money to begin cranking up, and I?ve ordered the operating department to begin mobilizing and rebuilding cars, and also restore some level of overhaul on these Amfleet cars. We don?t know what our appropriations will be next year, but it doesn?t matter, because if they?re not going to give us more money to run Amtrak we?ll just go out of business with our shops up and running. If they give us enough money we?ll have rebuilt cars. In other words, we?re at a point where it doesn?t matter. We have to do this; we have to do it if we?re going to run the railroad.
VERNON: So you?re saying...
GUNN: I?m betting on the come, is what I?m doing. [He expects to get the cash-Ed.
You asked, do I have the money, and I?m telling you no, not yet, but I think I?m going to get it, but if I wait until I get it, it?s too late. I won?t be able to spend it. I won?t know until December whether I get $1.2 billion. So what am I going to do? Sit on my thumbs until December? When I don?t have enough cars?
VERNON: (chuckle) In the middle of the night, 2 a.m. December 24th something happens.
GUNN: Yeah, if we waited until December, what would happen to us is we wouldn?t be rebuilding cars until next spring.
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COMMENT! If they started in July, and it is now mid november, and NOTHING has been rebuilt at the Grove yet, and the announcements are JUST NOW coming out that they will be recalling workers to the Grove (nearly FIVE MONTHS LATER), they will most likely be doing just that - NOT rebuilding cars until next spring!!
So much for all the hoopla about "WE ARE STARTING NOW!!!!" (and never mind posts about "it takes time!" - there are no 'environmental impact' reports necessary, and this is FOUR MONTHS LATER!!!)
