How is Boardman doing?

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Green Maned Lion

Engineer
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
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8,333
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NJ
I am leaving in four days on the longest Amtrak itinerary I have ever pursued. Its a trip that will take two weeks to complete, about half that time on trains, and the other half actually taking the time to explore a few cities. It is the first Amtrak trip I have taken in several years (excluding a few Lancaster-Philly trips), so I haven't actually been riding.

But apart from a few comments made lately, and a small bit of amenities being cut, it seems like the system is running more or less status quo.

I have noticed the divide between the young and the old on Amtrak, and it is a stark one. But despite my meager 29 years of age, I can attempt to bridge the gap a little, based upon the simple fact that my wife tells me I act like a "grumpy old man" most of the time. I see both points of view from a point of understanding their validity, but also from the point of view of a businessman.

And I am a man who likes nice things, especially older things. I anally searched for a house (and found one) that is a little over a hundred years old. What do I like about it? Original 6-1 window, almost entirely original 2-1-2 hardwood doors complete with mortice locks, mostly original plumbing fixtures, original hardwood floors, original woodwork, original cast-iron single-pipe steam radiators, and the piece-de-resistance, original bathroom door complete with frosted glass window. Almost every piece of furniture I own is an antique- because I prefer the quality of handmade hardwood furniture to the garbage they make now. And I am a foodie extreme, practically never touch chain restaurant food, anxiously driving hours to good restaurants I know regularly.

But! I am also a businessman who knows that one of the restaurants I like the most is a loss-leading charitable operation run by a very wealthy individual who really likes food. While I consider that impressive, and I consider the gentlemen a very nice guy, I also would find the same type of service being run by the Federal government deplorable. I wish to extend social services to people who need help, but I object to doing it on a silver platter. It is my general experience that this does not happen on the whole in this country, by the way- some rare exceptions here, there and yonder being exploited by right-wing media people in an attempt to end all social services notwithstanding.

I'm just placing my perspective out there for you to understand where I'm coming from.

Under Boardman, watching mostly from the sidelines as I am, Amtrak has, in my opinion, been run the best it has ever been run. I'm not talking about things that are essentially beyond Amtrak's control- such as the late Empire Builder. Boardman is a savvy political operative, and knows not to press to hard on issues that will mostly **** off his bosses in Congress and the White House, and make for amusing television news coverage not to his benefit (in sharp contrast to, say, David Gunn).

Boardman has, among other things, put money into solving most of the main cash drains (the more-than-fully depreciated AEM-7s and run-into-the-ground-structually-unsound Heritage cars) and alleviating certain capacity constraints (Amtrak has not ordered new coach cars, but redirection of the midwest Amfleets to the corridor will still allow a near doubling of single level long-distance cars in the form of the Horizon coaches). When Boardman came into this job in late 2008, Amtrak's operating subsidy was $600 million- it is now $340 million, and we have lost not a single train.

Over the past 10 years, Amtrak's operating loss per passenger has dropped a decent amount- from $37.50 per passenger to $12.40 a passenger. Under Boardman himself it has dropped from $22.22 to $12.40, a decrease of over 44%.

I know on the passenger amenities side, things have not been all a bed of roses. But if Amtrak actually manages to maintain ridership with those amenities cut, it will probably add a positive spin to the balance sheet in the area of $4-5 million. That's another 1.5%.

I contend further, that with the increasing ridership in the Northeast Corridor, with the improvements in ridership and revenue on the state-supported trains, I expect to see another budget surplus this year. A substantial one. I even contend that if Congress continues to fund capital projects generously (as they are likely to do, since supporting capital projects helps to line the pockets of the people that fund them) I truly expect to see an Amtrak that needs no operating subsidy by 2020.
 
I would have to generally agree with your comments, especially the ever decreasing subsidy and the increasing ridership and revenue. Increases in technology, such as the focus on e-tickets, electronic stock control for food items, potential cash less dining cars and cafes, wi-fi - although it is slow to materialize everywhere and is also,somewhat slow compared to what people experience at home/office and the potential for new equipment.

As I have mentioned in another post, there has been a change in the organizational structure that from what I can see puts the individuals responsible for specific long distance trains closer to the action and there is also the recent retirements of long serving Amtrak execs.....a few of whom provided invaluable service to the company for many years and will be missd.

There are always going to be rail fans calling for the "bloated HQs staff" to be eliminated, but as I have also recently sad, unless you have an org chart and know how many execs make for a "bloated organization", you are just spouting uninformed nonsense.

So, all in all, I think Mr. Boardman has done fine with a very difficult situation and with a company that doesn't demand too much attention, unless it is from the Micas of the political world
 
GML, have fun on ur trip..n thanx for the "personallity profile", it does help. As we know, we all have individual likes and dislikes. I will be very interested in how you feel after your trip on the little extras that either are there or not there, or provided by a personnel on board
 
Hello there, GML! I feel like I don't know where to begin, so let me respond to the stuff about you and then, of course, to Amtrak.

You're 29 you state?! Hope not to hate me for being similar to your wife's observations, in that I thought you were a fifety or sixty year old retiree. But not because you sound elderly and cranky, no no. The keen understanding and sharp wit of your writings on here are just simply rare, almost non-existant, in twenty-something Americans I see every day. We both have extreme intolerance, and impatience, for bulls**t and tomfoolery. Don't want appear overly flattering and buttery-up, so let me conclude this by stating I wish the singles market (which I'm in) had more offerings with people with deep rivers instead of weak trickles, folks who prefer face to face rather than staring endlessly at Facebeek.

Ok, that done, guess what I was thinking about on the way home from work today? (it starts with 'A' -- hee hee). I get these bursts of breathtaking vision and insight, when everything seems to add up and have a reason why it's in the big picture the way it is. Amtrak, our dear 'Ammy'.....

The railroad, and Boardman as its leader, has in many ways done remarkable in what the hell's been thrown at it, and what it generated by its own faults and failures. Where as so many cast stones at it, the fact is that since it's creation more people than ever are moving themselves in passenger rail, and our goods in freight. It literally is a thing where we woke up from the silly cars and autos are completely great and is all we ever need mentality, and smelled the coffee that it is simply not possible to live in a U. S. where cars and planes are the only ways to go. I woke up to -- we do need cars and plans in some instances; without air I would never have been able to go abroad for some special memories with my now ex, and driving is a necessity in many places and situations. Amtrak was the railroad who built itself from the ground up, and changed a culture, that people still take trains and will need to more than ever. But did we wake up too late, or too incompletely?

A confluence diametrical internal forces is creating a very dangerous inertia in the ranks; except for Acela II and a few others, there is no major decisions on the table where rolling stock acquisitions and route growth are concerned. The extreme winter low temps have broken the machines in locomotives and railcars so that there is an enormous backlog of repair work. This emergency situation, combined with major biggies like PTC, managing the new state funded PRIIA corridors, and a long broken funding mechanism, has distracted and worn down Boardman and team. It's called putting out fires, instead of doing things like thinking ahead to grow and thrive, it's always "what emergency do I have to deal with today".

And the Corridor. In truth, Amtrak does care about and wants, long distance trains and high speed corridor because: if it wanted to kill every overnight train it had the power to do so already, many times and opportunities. The reason the cross country trains are so bad are multiple: strained capacity, domestic and global economies that seek out our ability to move goods, and natural disasters like extreme weather, landslides and avalanches. As for corridor trains, this nation should have been able to build and run high speed not only in the North East, but in the mid-West, California, Texas, and Florida.

And why does the Corridor commmand so much attention? Because Amtrak owns it and has to. And when you're a railroad who owns a spinal artery like that, you better do well. And like a prostitute has to spread 'em for his or her customer, the dollars have to go sometimes in ways that are not symetrical with the rest of the country, since that is what Congress wants. Congress' voice will always overpower those of the small towns crying out to keep their meager one train a day. I hate to put it that way, but we all know that's how it works. And the very low temps have broken key aparatus in the NEC; catenary has snapped many times this year already, and rails and ties are broken and uneven. Expect 10 minutes added to many schedules later this year just to reverse the backlog, and capacity killing bottlenecks of the Hudson River tunnels and MetroNorth territory.

Chicago has been exposed, and just short of proven by consensus, to be a snake pit. But the sad thing is than many of the people that are there keeping the system broken, have started out as optimistic and honest visionary workers, dreaming to be a part of making the railroad a victorious comeback after the passenger train decline of the 50's and 60's. Repeated broken promises, institutional failures, and just plain greed, changed many of these people into what we see and talk about now. That parts are broken off and stolen from just repaired equipment, in order to deal with the shortage of parts, and to just plain sell them for money, is simply awful. Boardman and team have got to get energy from somewhere, heaven perhaps, to reverse this corruption. But it's kinda hard to do with so much other stuff on the plate. Not doing it, if that's what happens, will go down as one of Amtrak's biggest failures, which erodes the public trust as well as the feds. Can't preach someone to clean up their house when ya can't keep your own neat and tidy.

Finally, there's problems with transparency in certain things, like the Viewliner II's. No one at the National Railroad Passenger Co. nor here on AU, or any of the other rail websits, seems to know anything. Some commenters claim more or less it is none of our business, a tone that adds to the perception of something being shrouded under darkness. A tone that doesn't make sense, considering the fanfare a couple of months ago with the unveiling of even the retro paint scheme, and then BAM! Louder than Emeril Lagassi and like falling off a cliff, nothing.

So there ya have it. I to have added to our stimulating discussions of Amtrak, and ourselves, and, our love affair with it. I hope the fleet expands severely because indeed I, and others, will be riding those extra trains.
 
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