AmGrunt said:
If you only knew...
he sad part about it is that, there is not one person on the labor side signing these bogus contracts, or making these bone head decisions, yet the perception is that labor is what's causing all of these losses!
Another example: the crew hotel in Miami was costing Amtrak $40 a night to house the inbound crews from JAX. Because the hotel, at contract renewal time, wanted $3 more per night, Corporate Lodging opted to move the crews to another hotel for.......... $70 a night! Real geniuses, right?
But it's labor's fault...
That's sadly and simply because the labor numbers show up on one line on the financials, making the number seem horrific. Now don't misunderstand me, labor is a big cost and it is a factor. But Amtrak can never hope to break even by putting the entire blame on labor.
It will require cooperation from labor, while continuing to trim the management fat, and thru proper contract management for supplies, goods, and hotel rooms. No one group can fix the problem on its own, it will require Amtrak to address all three areas.
It seemed to me that David Gunn was at least dealing with two of those areas, labor and management, prior to his firing, but he had yet to deal with the contracts area. Don't know if he would have, although it did appear that he broke the contract for first class food on Acela last summer, but now we'll never know if he would have dealt with other contracts.
One thing however that I want to make perfectly clear, none of the above will ever make Amtrak profitable! That is an impossible goal. If the airlines can't make a profit by moving millions more people than Amtrak does every year, then there is no way that Amtrak will ever do so. A profitable Amtrak is one of the biggest myth or lies around.
The best we can ever hope for would be an Amtrak that manages to cover its operating expenses. It will always depend on Congress and the White House for capital improvements.