tommylicious
OBS Chief
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2013
- Messages
- 599
does he have a fat retirement package?
Overall an excellent record of solid accomplishment. And even if he'd been mediocre overall, emphasizing that he has been very good, not mediocre, he's done a truly great job at avoiding drama, especially avoiding the wasteful churn of Presidents we saw before he landed there.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.
Coast Starlight: strong support in all three statesEB: strong support in every state. Contested in Wisconsin, but strong support despite oppositionSo 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.
Chris Christie, the last decade of unfunding of NJT, the looting of NJ rail funding for roads,...Could you elaborate a bit on what got you started on that rant, providing the facts that got you going? Just curious.Shutting down the NEC would be easier, politically, due to a remarkable lack of support from New Jersey.
This list shows you how much of a LD presence PA has. Some states are lucky geographically. Despite Ohio's and Indiana's lack of support for trains, it's almost impossible to get from Chicago to the NEC without going through them (although the Cardinal just barely serves Ohio). Same with South Carolina and Georgia. But apparently they can just touch Pennsylvania and go around it.Coast Starlight: strong support in all three statesEB: strong support in every state. Contested in Wisconsin, but strong support despite oppositionSo 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.
CZ: mildly positive in CA, strong support in NV, neutral in UT, strong support in CO, mildly positive in Nebraska, strong support in Iowa
SWC: absurdly strong support in AZ, NM, CO, KS -- I wouldn't have believed it before it happened -- also MO
TE: strong support in Texas (yes, really), also Illinois, Missouri
LSL: strong support in NY and Chicago, moderate support in Massachusetts, highly contested in Ohio but strong support despite opposition, Indiana doesn't care, support from Michigan...
CL: strong support in Chicago, DC, West Virginia, western Maryland, highly contested in Ohio but strong support despite opposition
Cardinal: strong support in Kentucky (!), West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio (!!!), moderate support in Indiana
Star/Meteor/Palmetto: strong support in VA, NC, and especially FL -- moderate support in SC (!!!), not sure about GA
Crescent: strong support in NC, moderate in Louisiana, moderate-to-strong in MS, not sure about GA
CONO: support in Illinois and in Tennessee, weak support in Louisiana, apathy in MS
Sunset Limited: nobody seems to care, not CA, not AZ, not NM, not TX.
So for the NY-Chicago trains, the "support gap" is basically Ohio and Indiana. There is a lot of support in Ohio despite a hostile governor and gerrymandered legislature. And even Indiana seems to rouse enough support to stop cuts. The subsidies before overhead allocation are peanuts. And there's basically no overhead to remove by cancelling the trains (Chicago's still operating, the Empire Corridor is still operating, the Pennsylvanian is still operating, MARC is still operating, Beech Grove is still operating.)
For the NY-Florida trains -- apart from the fact that they're significantly profitable before overhead -- the "support gap" is basically just Georgia. Even with a hostile legislature, NC has been unwilling to allow any service cuts on any of the routes through NC.
There is no support gap on the Empire Builder. Denver will be unwilling to lose its train to Chicago. Reno will be unwilling to lose its train to California. I would have said that there was a support gap on the Southwest Chief, but recent events have proven me wrong.
This list shows you how much of a LD presence PA has. Some states are lucky geographically. Despite Ohio's and Indiana's lack of support for trains, it's almost impossible to get from Chicago to the NEC without going through them (although the Cardinal just barely serves Ohio). Same with South Carolina and Georgia. But apparently they can just touch Pennsylvania and go around it.
I wonder how many of these states would be as supportive if Amtrak sent them a bill. It would be nice if PA got a free train between PGH and PHL like we used to and not have to pay for it.
Wha-What??? Both of the Senators from Texas are far from Amtrak supporters, in fact reps from both have personally told me at political gatherings that the senators would gladly cut the system completely, if given that as a realistic option. And, I know of exactly zero GOP congresscritter from Texas who supports the Amtrak system........TE: strong support in Texas (yes, really), also Illinois, MissouriSo 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.
I'll leave the rest of your statement for Neroden but Chris Christie had zilch to do with the reconfiguration of County. That project (which someone in this thread had something to do with) was drawn, funded and prioritized long before he came into play. it just took a little longer for Amtrak to execute since the SES was very busy during this time.And who do you suppose paid for, just an example, the high speed universal crossovers at say County interlocking even during Chris Christie's time. Your claim that the NEC will be easier to shut down than the LD network, NJ support or otherwise, is utter BS and you either know it or are ignorant, I believe it to be the former.
DJ Statler? As CEO of Amtrak??? Operations???? Here is a comment from the Peanut Gallery!Stadtler's record in operations. Meh. I am not a fan. Beancounter over safety.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.
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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.
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.
All this "support" -- how much is that in dollars?Coast Starlight: strong support in all three statesEB: strong support in every state. Contested in Wisconsin, but strong support despite oppositionSo far as I can tell many long distance routes have pockets of strong support here and there. ...
CZ: mildly positive in CA, strong support in NV, neutral in UT, strong support in CO, mildly positive in Nebraska, strong support in Iowa
SWC: absurdly strong support in AZ, NM, CO, KS -- I wouldn't have believed it before it happened -- also MO
TE: strong support in Texas (yes, really), also Illinois, Missouri
LSL: strong support in NY and Chicago, moderate support in Massachusetts, highly contested in Ohio but strong support despite opposition, Indiana doesn't care, support from Michigan...
CL: strong support in Chicago, DC, West Virginia, western Maryland, highly contested in Ohio but strong support despite opposition
Cardinal: strong support in Kentucky (!), West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio (!!!), moderate support in Indiana
Star/Meteor/Palmetto: strong support in VA, NC, and especially FL -- moderate support in SC (!!!), not sure about GA
Crescent: strong support in NC, moderate in Louisiana, moderate-to-strong in MS, not sure about GA
CONO: support in Illinois and in Tennessee, weak support in Louisiana, apathy in MS
Sunset Limited: nobody seems to care, not CA, not AZ, not NM, not TX.
So for the NY-Chicago trains, the "support gap" is basically Ohio and Indiana. There is a lot of support in Ohio despite a hostile governor and gerrymandered legislature. And even Indiana seems to rouse enough support to stop cuts. The subsidies before overhead allocation are peanuts. And there's basically no overhead to remove by cancelling the trains (Chicago's still operating, the Empire Corridor is still operating, the Pennsylvanian is still operating, MARC is still operating, Beech Grove is still operating.)
For the NY-Florida trains -- apart from the fact that they're significantly profitable before overhead -- the "support gap" is basically just Georgia. Even with a hostile legislature, NC has been unwilling to allow any service cuts on any of the routes through NC.
There is no support gap on the Empire Builder. Denver will be unwilling to lose its train to Chicago. Reno will be unwilling to lose its train to California. I would have said that there was a support gap on the Southwest Chief, but recent events have proven me wrong.
Are the Viewliner 2's already paid for though?For Amtrak's supporters, the defensive position -- let's not cut anything -- is almost easy.
But asking for more money -- more capital for new coaches etc, or more subsidy to replace funds diverted to the Hudson Tunnels and Gateway project -- would be very, very hard to do.
The 130 Viewliners are small potatoes. Now 70 bag cars in hand, 60 diners, sleepers, and bag-dorms to go.Are the Viewliner 2's already paid for though?But asking for more money -- more capital for new coaches etc -- would be very, very hard to do.
Probably not going to work. The main issue is that, screwups on the part of suppliers notwithstanding, there's a decent amount of displacement of old equipment slated with the N-S order. It is also very likely that Virginia (and/or North Carolina) will be putting in an order at some point to handle their trains...which gives Amtrak a lot of foreseeable slack with coach space (and cafes). Bear in mind that as far as I can tell, there's no compelling reason to dump the Amfleets...Amtrak has enough of them to keep a good ecosystem of parts orders going for quite some time.The 130 Viewliners are small potatoes. Now 70 bag cars in hand, 60 diners, sleepers, and bag-dorms to go.Are the Viewliner 2's already paid for though?But asking for more money -- more capital for new coaches etc -- would be very, very hard to do.
The active Amtrak fleet, including shop counts but not locomotives or the Acela or Cascades train sets, totaled 1,553 cars in the 2012 Fleet Strategy (update up to you, LOL). Of those, 308 bi-levels and 825 single-level cars. (The document included the 130 CAF Viewliners in the 825, in classic case of counting of unhatched eggs!)
So about 695 new cars still needed to replace the aging single-level fleet.
That's not counting anyone's dreams of a daily Cardinal (or a daily bi-level Sunset), or a new Pennsylvanian or Broadway Ltd running Phiily-CHI. Just not enuff equipment for that until someone starts delivering new cars. The 695 wouldn't even get enuff cars to add another coach to all the trains that are selling out or close to it.
Of course, the fleet is mainly in two parts: the single-level cars for the East, and bi-levels for the West. So you'd need two multi-Billion orders.
Or as a stop gap for the West, if you could get any extra single level cars, then maybe squeeze out a few Superliners by converting one of the bi-level routes (the Capitol Ltd or the City of New Orleans, seem likely candidates). Then send its liberated cars out West to add a coach and/or a sleeper to one or more LD lines that could easily sell the space.
As far as I can tell, none of the recent Congressional spewing actually even mentions buying 100s of new cars, not soon, not ever.
The haters' plan is not to try to kill Amtrak while it is still popular. The plan is to starve it of funds for new equipment, let it rust away and decay, and then kill it. Pretty good plan they have, no?
The Texas Eagle *only exists due to local support in Texas*, and Texas has put money into it in the past. There have been a lot of route cancellations in Texas; the Eagle was specifically kept alive solely due to local support. Whatever Texas Senators think, Texas state legislators and mayors and city councils -- from San Antonio through Austin through Fort Worth and Dallas -- are going to keep it alive.Wha-What??? Both of the Senators from Texas are far from Amtrak supporters, in fact reps from both have personally told me at political gatherings that the senators would gladly cut the system completely, if given that as a realistic option. And, I know of exactly zero GOP congresscritter from Texas who supports the Amtrak system........
I looked that up and it appears to have been the federal government. Are you absolutely sure it wasn't federal funds, because it looks like it was federal funds being pushed through NJT.And who do you suppose paid for, just an example, the high speed universal crossovers at say County interlocking even during Chris Christie's time.
RE: The Texas Eagle *only exists due to local support in Texas*--------Citation needed.The Texas Eagle *only exists due to local support in Texas*, and Texas has put money into it in the past. There have been a lot of route cancellations in Texas; the Eagle was specifically kept alive solely due to local support. Whatever Texas Senators think, Texas state legislators and mayors and city councils -- from San Antonio through Austin through Fort Worth and Dallas -- are going to keep it alive.Wha-What??? Both of the Senators from Texas are far from Amtrak supporters, in fact reps from both have personally told me at political gatherings that the senators would gladly cut the system completely, if given that as a realistic option. And, I know of exactly zero GOP congresscritter from Texas who supports the Amtrak system........
There's an active organization supporting *just* the Texas Eagle. Established by the "Texas Eagle Mayors' Coalition". http://tempo-rail.org/
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