I ran across this 2008 news item today. Kummant's firing came soon after a trip to Europe in which he complimented European rail passenger service. The turmoil might have contributed to the volte face on the Pioneer study in 2008-9.
> KUMMANT OUT AS AMTRAK CEO
>
> WASHINGTON -- Amtrak CEO Alex Kummant, age 47, with a history of job
> changes that rival the number of Amtrak station stops, resigned Nov.
> 14 after barely two years on the job.
>
> There were indications Kummant ran afoul of the Amtrak board of
> directors, which names the Amtrak CEO without need of Senate
> confirmation, even though Amtrak is owned by the federal government
> and receives a nearly $1 billion annual taxpayer subsidy. No further
> details were provided regarding Kummant’s sudden departure, which had
> been rumored for the past three weeks.
>
> A source close to the Amtrak board, who asked not to be identified,
> speculated that Kummant "was not hands on. He didn't have a handle on
> finances or operations. His personality was often confrontational."
>
> Kummant will be succeeded, on an interim basis, by Amtrak Chief
> Operating Officer William Crosbie, who is expected to run the national
> intercity rail passenger company until the Obama administration
> rejiggers the Amtrak board of directors. It will be the Amtrak board
> that will choose a permanent successor to Kummant.
>
> Kummant was named Amtrak president in September 2006, after the Amtrak
> board dispatched David Gunn 10 months earlier. The railroad experience
> of Gunn’s two predecessors, Tom Downs and George Warrington, was
> limited to Northeast Corridor commuter operations, but Gunn had
> extensive freight and passenger operating experience, dating to early
> management days on the Santa Fe.
>
> Kummant had no railroad operating experience, but did have a short
> stint as a Union Pacific marketing officer.
>
> To find a successor to Gunn, Amtrak’s board hired the executive search
> firm of Heidrick & Struggles in 2006. According to a Washington
> transportation newsletter at the time, the search firm sought to
> identify airline executives to run Amtrak.
>
> But no airline executive had any interest in taking the helm of an
> organization targeted for elimination by the Bush administration,
> suffering difficult labor relations and, by many accounts, having a
> management team demoralized over frequent managerial changes, freight
> railroad hostility toward Amtrak and non-stop budget woes.
>
> The transportation newsletter reported that the search firm
> recommended, as possible Gunn successors, Conrail Shared Assets
> President Ron Batory, Association of American Railroads Vice President
> Robert Vanderclute, former New Jersey Transit Chairman John Haley, and
> former Conrail executive Tim O’Toole, who then was running the London
> subway system and is now a CSX board member. The Amtrak board showed
> no serious interest in any of those candidates.
>
> Amtrak’s board then hired Kummant, who was described as having a job
> history "tethered to a Pogo stick." In the eight years prior to his
> hiring by Amtrak, Kummant held seven separate jobs with seven
> different employers.
>
> It was thought by Washington insiders that Kummant’s candidacy was
> advanced by former CSX chairman and Bush confidant John Snow, as well
> as BNSF Chairman Matt Rose and then-UP Chairman Dick Davidson, both
> significant fund raisers for George W. Bush. Moreover, then Amtrak
> board Chairman David Laney, and then Amtrak board member Floyd Hall
> also were major fundraisers for George W. Bush.
>
> Additionally, the search firm’s senior partner, Les Csorba, was a
> former Bush adviser and fundraiser. Add to this that Kummant’s wife, a
> former BNSF executive, was a contributor to the Bush campaign.
> After the Amtrak board announced Kummant’s hiring, Kummant declined to
> be interviewed, and has remained reticent about talking with the
> media. A major rail shipper was quoted by a Washington transportation
> newsletter, at the time of Kummant’s hiring, that, "If you backed Alex
> into a corner and demanded he tell you everything he knows about
> railroads, he wouldn’t be taking more than a couple of minutes."
>
> Amtrak Board Chairman Donna McLean said little about Kummant’s
> departure, other than, "We wish him well in his future endeavors."
>
> Vice Chairman R. Hunter Biden said, "Our board is committed to keeping
> Amtrak on an aggressive path of performance improvement. Current
> economic conditions highlight the need for us to continue finding ways
> to drive quality and customer service across the system. We are moving
> forward with the development of an aggressive long-term plan for the
> company, based on the recent legislation passed by Congress."
>
> Kummant ran afoul of a Republican majority board of directors.
>
> The current board members include:
>
> Chairman Donna McLean, a Republican and George W. Bush contributor,
> she is a transportation policy consultant, whose clients include
> Boeing Aircraft. Prior to forming her consulting practice, she served
> a Bush administration assistant DOT secretary for Budget and Programs
> and DOT’s chief financial officer.
>
> Vice Chairman R. Hunter Biden, a Democrat, who, in addition to being
> the son of Vice Preisdent-elect Joe Biden, has a background in
> financial services.
>
> Thomas C. Carper, a Democrat and former mayor of McComb, Ill., who
> long has been active in support of regional passenger rail service in
> Illinois.
>
> Nancy Naples, a Republican, who lost a congressional race in western
> New York, was New York State’s commissioner of motor vehicles, was an
> adviser to former New York Republican Gov. George Pataki, and had a
> short career on Wall Street.
>
> Republican Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who is represented on
> the Amtrak board by FRA Administrator Joe Boardman.
>
> Kummant, is a non-voting member.
>
> Amtrak has 19,000 employees, operates over 21,000 miles of track
> (mostly owned by freight railroads), serves some 500 stations in 46
> states, and carries almost 29 million passengers annually.
>
> Amtrak’s presidents:
> Roger Lewis, 1971-1974
> Paul Reistrup, 1974-1978
> Alan Boyd, 1978-1982
> W. Graham Claytor, 1982-1993
> Thomas Downs, 1993-1998
> George Warrington, 1998-2002
> David Gunn, 2002-2005
> David Hughes, 2005-2006 (interim)
> Alexander Kummant, 2006-2008
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> ------------------------------------
> > ---
> Friends of Amtrak by Craig S. O'Connell
> URL: http://www.FriendsOfAmtrak.com
>
> WASHINGTON -- Amtrak CEO Alex Kummant, age 47, with a history of job
> changes that rival the number of Amtrak station stops, resigned Nov.
> 14 after barely two years on the job.
>
> There were indications Kummant ran afoul of the Amtrak board of
> directors, which names the Amtrak CEO without need of Senate
> confirmation, even though Amtrak is owned by the federal government
> and receives a nearly $1 billion annual taxpayer subsidy. No further
> details were provided regarding Kummant’s sudden departure, which had
> been rumored for the past three weeks.
>
> A source close to the Amtrak board, who asked not to be identified,
> speculated that Kummant "was not hands on. He didn't have a handle on
> finances or operations. His personality was often confrontational."
>
> Kummant will be succeeded, on an interim basis, by Amtrak Chief
> Operating Officer William Crosbie, who is expected to run the national
> intercity rail passenger company until the Obama administration
> rejiggers the Amtrak board of directors. It will be the Amtrak board
> that will choose a permanent successor to Kummant.
>
> Kummant was named Amtrak president in September 2006, after the Amtrak
> board dispatched David Gunn 10 months earlier. The railroad experience
> of Gunn’s two predecessors, Tom Downs and George Warrington, was
> limited to Northeast Corridor commuter operations, but Gunn had
> extensive freight and passenger operating experience, dating to early
> management days on the Santa Fe.
>
> Kummant had no railroad operating experience, but did have a short
> stint as a Union Pacific marketing officer.
>
> To find a successor to Gunn, Amtrak’s board hired the executive search
> firm of Heidrick & Struggles in 2006. According to a Washington
> transportation newsletter at the time, the search firm sought to
> identify airline executives to run Amtrak.
>
> But no airline executive had any interest in taking the helm of an
> organization targeted for elimination by the Bush administration,
> suffering difficult labor relations and, by many accounts, having a
> management team demoralized over frequent managerial changes, freight
> railroad hostility toward Amtrak and non-stop budget woes.
>
> The transportation newsletter reported that the search firm
> recommended, as possible Gunn successors, Conrail Shared Assets
> President Ron Batory, Association of American Railroads Vice President
> Robert Vanderclute, former New Jersey Transit Chairman John Haley, and
> former Conrail executive Tim O’Toole, who then was running the London
> subway system and is now a CSX board member. The Amtrak board showed
> no serious interest in any of those candidates.
>
> Amtrak’s board then hired Kummant, who was described as having a job
> history "tethered to a Pogo stick." In the eight years prior to his
> hiring by Amtrak, Kummant held seven separate jobs with seven
> different employers.
>
> It was thought by Washington insiders that Kummant’s candidacy was
> advanced by former CSX chairman and Bush confidant John Snow, as well
> as BNSF Chairman Matt Rose and then-UP Chairman Dick Davidson, both
> significant fund raisers for George W. Bush. Moreover, then Amtrak
> board Chairman David Laney, and then Amtrak board member Floyd Hall
> also were major fundraisers for George W. Bush.
>
> Additionally, the search firm’s senior partner, Les Csorba, was a
> former Bush adviser and fundraiser. Add to this that Kummant’s wife, a
> former BNSF executive, was a contributor to the Bush campaign.
> After the Amtrak board announced Kummant’s hiring, Kummant declined to
> be interviewed, and has remained reticent about talking with the
> media. A major rail shipper was quoted by a Washington transportation
> newsletter, at the time of Kummant’s hiring, that, "If you backed Alex
> into a corner and demanded he tell you everything he knows about
> railroads, he wouldn’t be taking more than a couple of minutes."
>
> Amtrak Board Chairman Donna McLean said little about Kummant’s
> departure, other than, "We wish him well in his future endeavors."
>
> Vice Chairman R. Hunter Biden said, "Our board is committed to keeping
> Amtrak on an aggressive path of performance improvement. Current
> economic conditions highlight the need for us to continue finding ways
> to drive quality and customer service across the system. We are moving
> forward with the development of an aggressive long-term plan for the
> company, based on the recent legislation passed by Congress."
>
> Kummant ran afoul of a Republican majority board of directors.
>
> The current board members include:
>
> Chairman Donna McLean, a Republican and George W. Bush contributor,
> she is a transportation policy consultant, whose clients include
> Boeing Aircraft. Prior to forming her consulting practice, she served
> a Bush administration assistant DOT secretary for Budget and Programs
> and DOT’s chief financial officer.
>
> Vice Chairman R. Hunter Biden, a Democrat, who, in addition to being
> the son of Vice Preisdent-elect Joe Biden, has a background in
> financial services.
>
> Thomas C. Carper, a Democrat and former mayor of McComb, Ill., who
> long has been active in support of regional passenger rail service in
> Illinois.
>
> Nancy Naples, a Republican, who lost a congressional race in western
> New York, was New York State’s commissioner of motor vehicles, was an
> adviser to former New York Republican Gov. George Pataki, and had a
> short career on Wall Street.
>
> Republican Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who is represented on
> the Amtrak board by FRA Administrator Joe Boardman.
>
> Kummant, is a non-voting member.
>
> Amtrak has 19,000 employees, operates over 21,000 miles of track
> (mostly owned by freight railroads), serves some 500 stations in 46
> states, and carries almost 29 million passengers annually.
>
> Amtrak’s presidents:
> Roger Lewis, 1971-1974
> Paul Reistrup, 1974-1978
> Alan Boyd, 1978-1982
> W. Graham Claytor, 1982-1993
> Thomas Downs, 1993-1998
> George Warrington, 1998-2002
> David Gunn, 2002-2005
> David Hughes, 2005-2006 (interim)
> Alexander Kummant, 2006-2008
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> ------------------------------------
> > ---
> Friends of Amtrak by Craig S. O'Connell
> URL: http://www.FriendsOfAmtrak.com
