President Nominates New Amtrak Board Members

[AlanB]

President George. W. Bush said late on Friday he plans to nominate former American Airlines (NYSE:AMR - News) chairman Robert Crandall to Amtrak's board of directors.
Former K-Mart chairman Floyd Hall and former World Bank (News - Websites) official and railroad privatization expert Louis Thompson, also will be nominated to five-year terms, the White House said in a statement.

The full story can be found at Yahoo.com.

I personally have to say that I'm very unhappy with the last choice, Louis Thompson. The other two IMHO aren't exactly wonderful appointees, but Louis Thompson hopefully will be rejected. The last thing we need is privatization. Besides the real experts on privatization live in England, and they've already decided that privatization was a huge failure.

The Government of England is now spending more money than ever before, just to fix their privatization debacle. So maybe if we let them try to privatize Amtrak, it will finally get the funding that it needs once privatization fails.

 

[tp49]

Coming from a Republican....

He couldn't have made any worse appointments if he had picked the 3 stooges. Bob Crandell who according to the Airline trades and WSJ nearly singlehandedly brought AA to the brink of bankruptcy they are currently hovering ever so close to the Chapter 11 bubble.

The choice of the former K-Mart CEO is also very questionable picking people who could not run their businesses to run an entity you are even remotely considering privitizing is asking for the death knell for Amtrak. However, the only interesting caveat to this could be that if Amtrak goes private mabye then they would/could be funded similarly to the airlines. However privitization would probably never work.

End of rant...

 

[Guest_sutton8596]

coming from a conservative liberal:

George W strikes again! Poor choices, and just determined to do with Amtrak what he's wanted to all along: make sure it's destroyed.

I guess I will write to the current congressmen/women who have proposed a great infusiion of funding; let them lead the way.

 

[Superliner Diner]

The choice of the former K-Mart CEO is also very questionable picking people who could not run their businesses to run an entity you are even remotely considering privitizing is asking for the death knell for Amtrak.

Maybe he could cook the books a little and keep AMTRAK going a little longer.... Enron on rails! :blink: :blink:

 

[Amfleet]

Robert Crandall of American Airlines could bring back Phase III as it is applied to AA planes, just upside down.

Floyd Hall of K-Mart could bring blue light specials to ticket prices.

Just think of the opportunities this management will bring to Amtrak.

(Sorry about this folks, I think I've had to much Busch) :wacko:

 

[tp49]

Well on the bright side with Bob Crandell on board not only will Amtrak have financial trouble but now they'll have labor trouble as well (see Crandell's labor relations record at AA or ask anyone you know who worked there when he was in charge).

 

[jccollins]

I would pay big money to have seen the look on Dave Gunn's face when he heard about these! Could you imagine...

:blink: :blink: :blink:

 

[steve_relei]

Perhaps with Cranston onboard, the airlines and Amtrak would find ways to work together instead of always being competitive. One idea I have long had is to have more transportation options between rail stations and airports. People from small towns will often take the train to a larger town where they can catch a plane to somewhere. It is true in Seattle, where people board planes to Alaska. How about more train stations at airports--where feasible?

 

[battalion51]

Well that has happened in some cases. Amtrak is constructing a station near Harrisburg International to connect them to rural Pennsylvania. Newark has AirTrain to make the connection between the corridor and the airport. In Miami Tri-Rail has stations that connect to all three major airports (PBI is accessed through the West Palm station, FLL by Dania Beach Station, and MIA by the Miami International station all have connecting bus service to access the terminal). I do agree that more should be done to connect the airports to the rail lines. Not only will this make major airports more accessible to those in rural areas, but it will provide alternatives to parking at the airport lots which are often full, and pretty pricey.

 

[Amfleet]

Except for the Northeast Corridor, I don't think airlines and Amtrak are actually competing too much. Much of Amtrak's competition comes from the highway. A well-planned air-rail system in the country would work very well in my mind. With that the 18 long-distance trains should still be kept providing an efficient alternative to those wish not to fly or drive. So much needs to be done to this countries infrastructure, but apparently rebuilding other countires is our governments priority right now.

 

[Viewliner]

Well that has happened in some cases. Amtrak is constructing a station near Harrisburg International to connect them to rural Pennsylvania. Newark has AirTrain to make the connection between the corridor and the airport. In Miami Tri-Rail has stations that connect to all three major airports (PBI is accessed through the West Palm station, FLL by Dania Beach Station, and MIA by the Miami International station all have connecting bus service to access the terminal). I do agree that more should be done to connect the airports to the rail lines. Not only will this make major airports more accessible to those in rural areas, but it will provide alternatives to parking at the airport lots which are often full, and pretty pricey.

Don't forget BWI, which is via a shuttle bus I believe. Soon JFK will have an AirTrain as well which will connect it to LIRR's Jamaica Station (where passengers can get to Penn Station and other points on the LIRR system)

 

[tp49]

There is also a shuttle from the LIRR's Ronkonkoma station to LI MacArthur Airport as the train station is on the north end of the airport. BART now directly serves SFO and before that CalTrain had a shuttle from Millbrae to SFO, and the connection at Oakland with BART has been there for years. Soon at San Jose you will be able to take light rail from Diridon station (Amtrak, CalTrain) to SJC.

 

[Allen Dee]

Don't forget the Burbank Airport (California, of course) station, where one can actually walk from the train to the plane. This station is served by both Amtrak and Metrolink and is very popular.

 

[tp49]

Suffice it to say that a lot of public transit agencies run service to their city's airports just off the top of my head I can think of LAX, ORD/MDW, STL, ATL, PHL, BOS, CLE, et al, which makes a lot of sense to do not only for passengers but airport employees as well.

 

[steve_relei]

It is nice to know there are places where their is good transportation between airports and rail stations. But there is more potential in more places. Here in Portland, there is MAX from downtown to the airport (PDX), but the nearest stop is quite a ways from the station and through a seedy part of town--intimidating for out-of-towners, people with luggage, the elderly, etc. Taking a bus into the center of town is also time-consuming. It would be great if we could have a bus taking people directly from Union Station to PDX and return.

Seattle and Tacoma (to and from Sea-Tac) are other places that could use this service. The Coast Starlight (and Capitol trains) passes by the San Jose and Oakland airports. The list goes on.