Joe Boardman to Retire

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While better than others, I can't say I'll be too sad to see him go. He kept Amtrak running, but that's about it. He seemed all too waffly on some things, particularly the LD trains. Now, the next guy may be terrible, or he could be awesome, I fully acknowledge that.
 
Hopefully, another one with the caliber of a Graham Claytor or a David Gunn or some combination of those two. Whoever he or she is, the administration needs to back him or her up.
 
The new legislation could divert $400 million or so of Acela profits to the NEC. That money has been supporting the whole of Amtrak.

Now Sen Schumer says the Acela profits can be dedicated to helping to pay for the Gateway Tunnels. And where will Amtrak get another few hundred million to take the place of the Acela cash flow for the rest of the national system?

I have a notion why Boardman would want to retire soonish. The current fiscal year -- until September 30 -- is set under the old rules. So he can retire before the new rules bite.

Then the President of Amtrak may be asked to preside over the dismemberment of the Long Distance network. He'll have to whack away first at the Zephyr, the Southwest Chief, and one of the north-south routes (pick the City of New Orleans or the Texas Eagle). Other routes will follow the next year and the next until they are all gone.

That's the haters' dream world. Maybe Joe Boardman simply doesn't want to be part of that, and so, "Good night".
 
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for what their paying, their not going to get much, unless he is buff like boardman or gunn.
Nature abhors a vacuum, Dutchman! There is always another resume filler waiting to step in.

The new legislation could divert $400 million or so of Acela profits to the NEC. That money has been supporting the whole of Amtrak.

Now Sen Schumer says the Acela profits can be dedicated to helping to pay for the Gateway Tunnels. And where will Amtrak get another few hundred million to take the place of the Acela cash flow for the rest of the national system?

I have a notion why Boardman would want to retire soonish. The current fiscal year -- until September 30 -- is set under the old rules. So he can retire before the new rules bite.

Then the President of Amtrak may be asked to preside over the dismemberment of the Long Distance network. He'll have to whack away first at the Zephyr, the Southwest Chief, and one of the north-south routes (pick the City of New Orleans or the Texas Eagle). Other routes will follow the next year and the next until they are all gone.

That's the haters' dream world. Maybe Joe Boardman simply doesn't want to be part of that, and so, "Good night".
More likely, he is leaving because there is an election next year. There is always turmoil and turnover and he probably would rather just sit it out and let whomever his replacement ease into things.

Besides, familiarity breeds contempt. It is probably time for him to go...while the getting is good.
 
Let's hope they get someone with both a Passenger Transportation and a Customer Service background and not someone who only knows how to count beans. We've already seen what happens to the airlines when they don't take heed of who they are hiring.
 
Actually there are many AU members that would take the job!

Of course we'd ()probably get fired quickly @ the insistence of the self appointed Congressional Railroad Executives when we refused to kiss the ring of the rail haters!

As for Joe, hell take his pension and start raking in the big bucks as a Lobbyist/Consultant.! b
 
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With the possible exceptions of the Sunset Limited and the City of New Orleans, pretty much all the so-called long-distance routes have unbreakable political coalitions behind them. (I can list the political support for all the others off the top of my head.) No Amtrak President will be able to stop any of those routes barring a natural disaster, regardless of what Congress suggests. Shutting down the NEC would be easier, politically, due to a remarkable lack of support from New Jersey.

It's worth noting that the upcoming legislation authorizes Amtrak to transfer as much of the NEC surplus to the long-distance line as Amtrak wants to. All it requires is an accounting of how much gets transferred. Which is going to be substantially less than the overhead, as any President who can read the accounting can point out; we, and Boardman, know that the net *avoidable* subsidies of the so-called long-distance routes are on the order of $16 million; everything else is an artifact of poor allocation practices.

Maybe Boardman found a successor who the Board is happy with before deciding to retire. That would be good -- avoid a Thomas Downs type disaster.
 
Okay--here are my choices for the next president of Amtrak (please, those who disagree, do not throw virtual rotten tomatoes at me :( ):

Wick Moorman, David Gunn, Patricia Quinn (the Downeaster lady)

I am not nearly as savvy as most of you about how things are run. However, the reason I like these three people is that they seem to be sincere, no-nonsense people I would trust, and they all seem to have a backbone. Wick Moorman seems to have been well-liked by everyone.

Of course, many people here on AU would be perfect as the next Amtrak president. :)
 
My first choice would probably be DJ Stadtler. But then I'm kind of conservative about these things...
 
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He's actually been rotated through several departments. That's traditional grooming for running the company. He has a pretty good record in operations, and in negotiations with the states, and in fights with the freight railroads. He's serious about deferred maintenance and committed to the long-distance trains. He is bullish on passenger rail.

Negotations with the states are arguably the most important thing at the moment.

Also, he seems to actually understand and care about the business -- he's not an "cut off your nose to save costs" bean-counter like E Hunter Harrison. He seems to actually recognize the real structure of Amtrak's costs, the importance of economies of scale, the deferred maintenance issues, the value of good service for customer loyalty, etc. He's apparently earned the respect and loyalty of the employees. Rare for someone with a finance background.

----

Looking at it holistically, I think Boardman needs to retire for health reasons and wants to put the company in safe hands before he does so -- hands which he trusts. We'll see if he can get his preferred candidate (who he has not named publicly) approved by the Board, but I bet he does. So I'm betting on an insider.
 
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Sure, if he wants it! He'd certainly have the political clout, but I don't know if he wants to deal with the day-to-day.
 
Mr Boardman has done an excellent job with the resources he has had. Excellent service, THANK YOU.

My observations of Mr Boardman's tenure is that he has shown true leadership, the standard for customer service has improved dramatically (though still far from optimal), and I think from things I have read that he is directly responsible for these improvements.

That said, Amtrak has an elephant's worth of challenges. As the joke goes: "Q: How do you eat an elephant? A: One bite at a time." And he has taken several bites. Customer service is one. Major progress on capital improvements in the NE Corridor. Above rail profitability in the NE Corridor are a few.

It is easy to gripe that the first bite was not the one we wanted, shudda started on the trunk first, not the front leg, or the rear leg, or the etc etc etc... Mr Boardman could have easily focused on LD trains... and had equal failures with LD and the NE Corridor. Would we be happier with that? Instead he focused on making the NE Corridor become a critical player in the transportation equation... with the incremental successes of the Downeaster and Virgina services piggybacking along.

Running Amtrak is not a 40 hour a week job. Mr Boardman deserves to be able to step back and do some things on his personal bucket list, be it trains, planes, automobiles, a personal farm, or whatever. I wish him well.
 
I cant see the the CONO getting cut. It has solid ridership and shares track line with 2 Illinois trains. And it generates revenues from the IP excursions tacked on the back. Granted political clout is weak with MS,TN. In the past anytime Amtrak was in danger in MS Trent Lott came to the rescue. But I cant see Western TN Congresscritters and TN senators letting Memphis lose a train, Same for New Orleans and the LA delegation. And Illinois still has a sizable delegation and seats on some important transit boards. NOt to mention it feeds into the entire National Network in Chicago.

With the possible exceptions of the Sunset Limited and the City of New Orleans, pretty much all the so-called long-distance routes have unbreakable political coalitions behind them. (I can list the political support for all the others off the top of my head.) No Amtrak President will be able to stop any of those routes barring a natural disaster, regardless of what Congress suggests. Shutting down the NEC would be easier, politically, due to a remarkable lack of support from New Jersey.

It's worth noting that the upcoming legislation authorizes Amtrak to transfer as much of the NEC surplus to the long-distance line as Amtrak wants to. All it requires is an accounting of how much gets transferred. Which is going to be substantially less than the overhead, as any President who can read the accounting can point out; we, and Boardman, know that the net *avoidable* subsidies of the so-called long-distance routes are on the order of $16 million; everything else is an artifact of poor allocation practices.

Maybe Boardman found a successor who the Board is happy with before deciding to retire. That would be good -- avoid a Thomas Downs type disaster.
 
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So far as I can tell many long distance routes have pockets of strong support here and there. The problem is that many if not most of these same routes also pass through areas that couldn't care less if the train survives and several pass through areas that openly detest their existence.
 
He's actually been rotated through several departments. That's traditional grooming for running the company. He has a pretty good record in operations, and in negotiations with the states, and in fights with the freight railroads. He's serious about deferred maintenance and committed to the long-distance trains. He is bullish on passenger rail.

Negotations with the states are arguably the most important thing at the moment.

Also, he seems to actually understand and care about the business -- he's not an "cut off your nose to save costs" bean-counter like E Hunter Harrison. He seems to actually recognize the real structure of Amtrak's costs, the importance of economies of scale, the deferred maintenance issues, the value of good service for customer loyalty, etc. He's apparently earned the respect and loyalty of the employees. Rare for someone with a finance background.

----

Looking at it holistically, I think Boardman needs to retire for health reasons and wants to put the company in safe hands before he does so -- hands which he trusts. We'll see if he can get his preferred candidate (who he has not named publicly) approved by the Board, but I bet he does. So I'm betting on an insider.
Stadtler's record in operations. Meh. I am not a fan. Beancounter over safety.

As for Joe Boardman's health, I don't know where that comes from. Some people know when it is time to retire and not hang on. I think he is one who knows. The Amtrak board will pick a successor based on politics.
 
Yeah. Boardman has been talking of retiring for a few years now, nothing to do with health AFAIK. I guess finally he pulled the trigger. I don't really expect Boardman to necessarily play any significant role (though he might play some role) in picking a successor. It will be the usual horsetrading and some Democrat bureaucrat hopefully with some transportation expertise will be found to fill the post by the Board with the approval of the Federal DOT.
 
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