If Boardman is entering a mental breakdown from the weight on his shoulders, he needs to step down tomorrow. My prayers are wish him, and with Amtrak. Every account of this latest crisis sounds graver than before.
And you're basing this on...what?
I don't know of who will fill his place, although the guy who ran the California network (Gene S.) Would be great.
Gene Skoropowski ran the Capitol Corridor, not the whole California network. The Capitol Corridor is a completely different type of operation than most of the rest of the system. Capitol Corridor-style operation wouldn't even necessarily work on the Pacific Surfliners, let alone the rest of the Amtrak network. Not saying Gene would be a bad leader, but just that successfully leading one doesn't mean you'd automatically be good at leading something else. Plus, I'm sure Gene's doing just fine with his consulting work and probably makes more doing that than he would as Amtrak president anyway.
Boardman did get a difficult order procurement of Viewliners and electric locomotives passed thru. But he also wasted time battling Keolis for VRE's love and affection,
Part of Amtrak's is business is to operate other passenger services under contract. Doing so, if done correctly and profitably, brings in money that reduces the total financial loss of the network.
he waited too long to do the orders,
Because the specifications for new equipment write themselves with a magic wand, the funding for such is automatically there, and dozens of suppliers were lined up ready to press the "ON" switch on their production lines as soon as Boardman said go.
and he messed up bigtime with the whole Al: the hi speed guy thing,
Everybody has their faults, but please explain what your issue is with the "hi speed guy thing."
when he could have organized crews to speed up the pace of fixing NEC's broken concrete ties, bumpy turnouts, and an electrical systems that fails twice a week.
Amtrak's crews are working as much as they can to fix all of the above, pending funding availability. I guess you're one of those who thinks that waving a magic wand (once it's done writing equipment specs, that is) automatically creates dozens of trained M of W crews and millions of dollars worth of M of W equipment so they can fix everything over the course of a weekend, to hell with the actual supply chain that needs to produce the new ties and track equipment, to hell with the billions of dollars needed to actually buy said equipment and materials, to heck with the fact that pacing yourself gives you a better value over the long run than doing it all at once, etc.
He earned the ire of many for not commenting one way or the other on Sunset Ltd east of NOL
This one is a valid complaint against Amtrak. Amtrak really ought to stop sticking its finger in its ears over this one.
and for having a moribund and lethargic outlook on expanding trains with Superliner IIIs.
You're person #1,532,452,895 that apparently has not read Amtrak's fleet plan. Again, these cars don't build themselves, the specs don't write themselves, and let me give you a cliff notes version of the fleet plan: Place the order for equipment most desperately needed first (replacing the heritage cars, life-expired electric locomotives, and expanding the miniscule eastern sleeper fleet), the pace the equipment orders in order to maintain a consistent supply chain. The thing you don't want to do is order a whole bunch at once, spending twice as much (or more) in production set-up costs, only to stop production after the initial large batch and do nothing for 30 years again, letting the supply chain go away, and then facing a bunch of cars that are life-expired all at once again.
Meanwhile, they have designed the specification on which a Superliner III order could be based, and the supply chain will start up in a couple of years once the states place their orders for new corridor cars.
You simply don't place orders for your entire fleet at once. Doing so is a big mistake.
He also collapses under the gun when faced with tough questions.
Examples?
W. Graham Claytor remains the high point that all Amtrak CEO's will be measured against, for good reason. We need a man or woman with military experience, yet the touch of an angel, and a love of trains, knowledge solid of railroading, human psychology, and politicaaly savvy. If you're out there please fly to Wash DC right away.
Yeah, Santa Claus, we need you.
