Amtrak Manager in Chicago Union Station Canned

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jis

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Amtrak calls its annual Polar Express Train Ride a “magical experience.”

Now it turns out a Christmas-loving Amtrak employee used the event to make a $25,000 debt disappear in a new holiday episode of traditional Chicago graft.

Benjamin Sheets, 50, of Downers Grove is now the former head of Amtrak transportation at Union Station. He can be seen online raving about the scent of Christmas trees and his dream of owning a tree farm.

But he also faces a year or more in prison after pleading guilty in federal court Thursday to making false statements to the government. He admitted steering $30,000 in business from The Polar Express Train Ride event to his wife’s suburban photo company.

........
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/amtrak-worker-steered-30k-from-polar-express-ride-to-wifes-business/

Apparently he is the third of six Amtrak Managers in the Chicago area to be canned recently.

Meanwhile the fiasco that is Amtrak Chicago carries on ....
 
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-caed-1_12-cv-00032/pdf/USCOURTS-caed-1_12-cv-00032-1.pdf

Apparently Amtrak has a bit of a checkered history of being in the business of revolving door rehiring of people that were let go for cause too. It is a rather deep swamp apparently. It is this sort of nonsense that gives one pause when considering advocating for funding Amtrak better, sadly.

Interesting discussion of this issue appears in this thread on trainorders: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,4395984

BTW, I was surprised to learn that Polly Hansen, who was forced to leave Amtrak was later hired by APTA. The set of revolving doors is well connected and spreads far and wide. The rot in transportation industry management apparently is quite enduring. And yet we are surprised that nothing seems to work any more.
 
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Age old saying: "It's not What you know, it's Who you know that counts."

Call it Networking, call it Cronyism, call it Politics, call it Nepotism, it's a way of life in Washington and apparently at Amtrak also!
 
I've heard things stated to me by amtrak employees. I won't repeat them. The corruption in Illinois and Chicago is deep. I don't know if it can be addressed without a federal investigation of state and local governments state wide.

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I've heard things stated to me by amtrak employees. I won't repeat them. The corruption in Illinois and Chicago is deep. I don't know if it can be addressed without a federal investigation of state and local governments state wide.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
And who is going to investigate the Feds? ;)

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oh_snap.gif
 
Please. Graft is the lifeblood of all government, and it always has been since the first neanderthal accepted food in exchange for leadership in his tribe.
 
When I was doing my graduate internship in the Texas Legislature, aka "the get rich boys club", the infamous Chairman of the Appropriations Committee known as the Duke of Duval had a saying that applies to every politician I've known in my 60+ years of being around these types:

"Better get it while you can boys! If you don't take it, someone else will!"

Cue Janis Joplin singing "..Get it while you can!.."

Perhaps this Manager can learn from the many ex-Illinois Governors in stir while he's in the can!
 
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There is the old line about someone wishing to be buried in Chicago after they die. To be able to remain active in politics, of course...

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If they could just get it right I could tolerate a little grease leaking.

But note that following links from this site to

https://twitter.com/Amtrak/status/918919163237863425

gets you to news at Twitter about a ground-breaking photo-op

for the new Portal Bridge.

And the very nice picture of the dignitaries has a caption

naming Governor Cory Booker, among others. Alas, it should

read Senator Cory Booker. And that fat man in the middle

of the photo, but not identified in the caption, is the actual

current Governor, Chris Christie.

I couldn't find a way to contact Amtrak to suggest that the

caption should be corrected, without joining Twitter to post

a comment. I've lived Twitter-free some good years, and

I don't intend to join it now.

So I guess for Amtrak, Cory Booker will be Jersey's Governor

and Chris Christie will be forgotten despite his fame and

notoriety.

There's just too much crappy little stuff to be fully confident

about the organization.
 
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If they could just get it right I could tolerate a little grease leaking.

But note that following links from this site to

https://twitter.com/Amtrak/status/918919163237863425

gets you to news at Twitter about a ground-breaking photo-op

for the new Portal Bridge.

And the very nice picture of the dignitaries has a caption

naming Governor Cory Booker, among others. Alas, it should

read Senator Cory Booker. And that fat man in the middle

of the photo, but not identified in the caption, is the actual

current Governor, Chris Christie.

I couldn't find a way to contact Amtrak to suggest that the

caption should be corrected, without joining Twitter to post

a comment. I've lived Twitter-free some good years, and

I don't intend to join it now.

So I guess for Amtrak, Cory Booker will be Jersey's Governor

and Chris Christie will be forgotten despite his fame and

notoriety.

There's just too much crappy little stuff to be fully confident

about the organization.
It looks like "Governor Corey Booker" is the name associated with the Twitter account @NJSenatorBooker, an account "created by friends of Cory Booker who believes he is the best person to represent New Jersey as Governor in 2014." It hasn't been active since 2013. Sen. Booker has two verified accounts: @SenBooker and @CoreyBooker.

IMO, it's just lazy tweeting that's almost an honest mistake, not meant to suggest Amtrak considers Sen. Booker the NJ Gov. Someone in Amtrak media simply wasn't diligent enough at the keyboard.

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The Illinois State Capitol building has, for decades, had its cupola illuminated by a red light. A friend of mine once told the story of being in Springfield with some professional colleagues who were there to lobby for an important professional industry cause. They had, earlier that day witnessed the oddly controlled shenanigans of a legislative committee. That evening, pointing to the cupola, one of them stated to the group:

"Do you see that red light there? This is the biggest ***** house in the State of Illinois!"
 
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