AmtrakLoverAndHater
Train Attendant
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2005
- Messages
- 63
Taken from a NARP Email.
(Special note to all. These reports have been coming from the NARP staff in Washington DC. Special thanks must go to them for all their efforts and hard work)
From NARP:
The delayed cablecast of Tuesday's House Railroads Subcommittee hearing is now scheduled for 2:30 a.m. (ET) tomorrow (Wednesday) morning on C-SPAN2. It is scheduled to run and estimated four hours and 21 minutes. (Yes, the hearing went from 10 am to almost 2:30 pm without a break.)
[in other words, the hearing will air late this evening/early tomorrow morning. 1:30 a.m. Central, 12:30 a.m. Mountain, 11:30 p.m. Pacific]
As previously noted, Amtrak nemesis Rep. John Mica (R-FL) will be on C-SPAN's Washington Jounral tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8 a.m. (ET). Do call in!
--xxxx xxxxx
The Subcommittee on Railroads held a hearing on Amtrak governance today;
some excerpts are below. Also, the opening statement of Chairman
LaTourette and the written testimony of Amtrak Chairman David Laney, DOT
General Counsel Jeffrey Rosen, Former President/CEO David Gunn, and
Acting Pres./CEO David Hughes is at http://www.house.gov/transportation/
(click on Railroads Subcommittee, then Hearings/Testimony).
So far, Amtrak Chairman David Laney has staked out a position
independent of the administration. There may be more news this week
about both the Amtrak Board and the administration. The board meets
tomorrow. At a Thursday breakfast meeting in New York City sponsored by
the Association for a Better New York, Secretary of Transportation
Norman Y. Mineta will "provide an Amtrak reform and transportation
update."
Unfortunately, C-SPAN--which taped today's hearing--has not yet
scheduled broadcast times, but has scheduled Rep. John Mica (R-FL),
Amtrak's most vocal critic on Capitol Hill, for Washington Journal
tomorrow morning at 8 AM Eastern. That is a call-in program, so make
your views known!
[For this morning's C-SPAN interview with Railroads Subcommittee
Chairman Steven LaTourette (R-OH), go to
<rtsp://video.c-span.org/15days/wj111505_amtrak.rm>]
Any hearing broadcast is likely to be after 11 PM Eastern and before 7
AM Wednesday. C-SPAN's schedule of future activities is at:
<http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp>
Excerpts from my hearing notes are below. See also the prepared
statements referenced above.
At today's hearing, Amtrak Chairman David Laney said:
* "Amtrak must expand."
* No decision has been made about creating a subsidiary to own Northeast
Corridor infrastructure; "we asked management to lay out any reasons for
not going forward. If we created the subsidiary it would be for assets
only. Right now, no one on the board, and I think in management, fully
understands the implications...The implications may stop us from going
forward."...Our interest in this represents "no change at all" from
April, regarding separation of management of operations and
infrastructure...There is no plan to sell the Northeast Corridor to
anyone.
* [re the board's legitimacy] "We play the hand we are dealt. I think we
have a functioning board and we're authorized to act."
* [responding to question about disconnect between his high praise for
Gunn at a September 21 hearing, and last week's firing] "From the day he
arrived at Amtrak, and for the next 12-18 months, David did a terrific
job. As of two months ago, he was not the right man for the job. I was
polite about it [at the September hearing]; he was still on the team,
and I was trying to make it work. He is a terrific operating man. He is
not the strong strategic planner and implementer that we need right
now."
* [responding to question about what reforms he was reluctant to
implement] "He was not as aggressive as we wanted to be in reducing food
service costs. There were a number of areas of expense, including
maintenance and overhauls of our equipment."
* I do not support the administration's zero funding request.
Former President and CEO David Gunn said:
* We had a strategic plan. Contrary to what the [Chairman Laney] said, I
believe in that document. The board will get the fruits of that plan
this week unless things have changed...a revised Gate Gourmet contract,
new food service initiatives, designs for cars required to support new
food service (presumably a reference to diner-lounges planned for
smaller long-distance trains).
* It's clear to me that I became an obstacle to doing away with the
corporate structure of Amtrak. Amtrak and its employees constitute the
gene pool for development of passenger rail in this country. I think the
bulk of employees do a good job. There's a few rotten apples, there's
going to be among 20,000 workers. We began training programs for
customer service.
* Amtrak needs reform. I think we documented that in the April plan, but
the board has moved on...There has not been a lot of dialogue between me
and the board since the April plan, but all the indications are that
they are heading towards the three-piece break-up of the corporation,
turning the Northeast Corridor over to a committee of governors, and
privatization of the long-distance trains or perhaps their elimination.
Time will tell.
* It's nonsense to say that you need to separate the infrastructure to
prevent bleeding (of capital funds to operations). Our money is
appropriated for operations, capital and debt service, and we're very
vigorous about keeping the buckets separate. Setting up a subsidiary
would be enormously complicated, probably subjecting the board to
lawsuits. The subsidiary would present a real risk for our very manual,
fragile accounting system. It would provide confusion, not clarity. It
is a specious argument to say you need to create a subsidiary for
clarity, that's nonsense in my opinion.
* My concern has always been that the Northeast Corridor should be a
vertically integrated railway [i.e. track and operations controlled by
same organization].
Early in the hearing, Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Chuck Schumer
(D-NY) and Reps. Mike Castle (R-DE) and Jim Costa (D-CA) testified. Many
legislators praised Gunn highly. Much of the hearing examined whether
Amtrak's board is legitimate both now and when key decisions were made
in the past. Schumer said, "We're calling on the President to send
Congress a full list of five nominations. He must follow the letter of
the law and consult with [senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid (D-NV). The
board and the President's actions have put Amtrak's future in great
danger. It is cloudy. There is no clear legal consensus that the board
has the authority to act."
Sorry for so much e-mail lately, but this is an important issue. If you are tired of getting these report about Gunn & Amtrak, e-mail me back and I will delete you form our list
xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx
Rail Passenger Association of California
xxx-xxx-xxxx
www.RailPAC.org
(Special note to all. These reports have been coming from the NARP staff in Washington DC. Special thanks must go to them for all their efforts and hard work)
From NARP:
The delayed cablecast of Tuesday's House Railroads Subcommittee hearing is now scheduled for 2:30 a.m. (ET) tomorrow (Wednesday) morning on C-SPAN2. It is scheduled to run and estimated four hours and 21 minutes. (Yes, the hearing went from 10 am to almost 2:30 pm without a break.)
[in other words, the hearing will air late this evening/early tomorrow morning. 1:30 a.m. Central, 12:30 a.m. Mountain, 11:30 p.m. Pacific]
As previously noted, Amtrak nemesis Rep. John Mica (R-FL) will be on C-SPAN's Washington Jounral tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8 a.m. (ET). Do call in!
--xxxx xxxxx
The Subcommittee on Railroads held a hearing on Amtrak governance today;
some excerpts are below. Also, the opening statement of Chairman
LaTourette and the written testimony of Amtrak Chairman David Laney, DOT
General Counsel Jeffrey Rosen, Former President/CEO David Gunn, and
Acting Pres./CEO David Hughes is at http://www.house.gov/transportation/
(click on Railroads Subcommittee, then Hearings/Testimony).
So far, Amtrak Chairman David Laney has staked out a position
independent of the administration. There may be more news this week
about both the Amtrak Board and the administration. The board meets
tomorrow. At a Thursday breakfast meeting in New York City sponsored by
the Association for a Better New York, Secretary of Transportation
Norman Y. Mineta will "provide an Amtrak reform and transportation
update."
Unfortunately, C-SPAN--which taped today's hearing--has not yet
scheduled broadcast times, but has scheduled Rep. John Mica (R-FL),
Amtrak's most vocal critic on Capitol Hill, for Washington Journal
tomorrow morning at 8 AM Eastern. That is a call-in program, so make
your views known!
[For this morning's C-SPAN interview with Railroads Subcommittee
Chairman Steven LaTourette (R-OH), go to
<rtsp://video.c-span.org/15days/wj111505_amtrak.rm>]
Any hearing broadcast is likely to be after 11 PM Eastern and before 7
AM Wednesday. C-SPAN's schedule of future activities is at:
<http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp>
Excerpts from my hearing notes are below. See also the prepared
statements referenced above.
At today's hearing, Amtrak Chairman David Laney said:
* "Amtrak must expand."
* No decision has been made about creating a subsidiary to own Northeast
Corridor infrastructure; "we asked management to lay out any reasons for
not going forward. If we created the subsidiary it would be for assets
only. Right now, no one on the board, and I think in management, fully
understands the implications...The implications may stop us from going
forward."...Our interest in this represents "no change at all" from
April, regarding separation of management of operations and
infrastructure...There is no plan to sell the Northeast Corridor to
anyone.
* [re the board's legitimacy] "We play the hand we are dealt. I think we
have a functioning board and we're authorized to act."
* [responding to question about disconnect between his high praise for
Gunn at a September 21 hearing, and last week's firing] "From the day he
arrived at Amtrak, and for the next 12-18 months, David did a terrific
job. As of two months ago, he was not the right man for the job. I was
polite about it [at the September hearing]; he was still on the team,
and I was trying to make it work. He is a terrific operating man. He is
not the strong strategic planner and implementer that we need right
now."
* [responding to question about what reforms he was reluctant to
implement] "He was not as aggressive as we wanted to be in reducing food
service costs. There were a number of areas of expense, including
maintenance and overhauls of our equipment."
* I do not support the administration's zero funding request.
Former President and CEO David Gunn said:
* We had a strategic plan. Contrary to what the [Chairman Laney] said, I
believe in that document. The board will get the fruits of that plan
this week unless things have changed...a revised Gate Gourmet contract,
new food service initiatives, designs for cars required to support new
food service (presumably a reference to diner-lounges planned for
smaller long-distance trains).
* It's clear to me that I became an obstacle to doing away with the
corporate structure of Amtrak. Amtrak and its employees constitute the
gene pool for development of passenger rail in this country. I think the
bulk of employees do a good job. There's a few rotten apples, there's
going to be among 20,000 workers. We began training programs for
customer service.
* Amtrak needs reform. I think we documented that in the April plan, but
the board has moved on...There has not been a lot of dialogue between me
and the board since the April plan, but all the indications are that
they are heading towards the three-piece break-up of the corporation,
turning the Northeast Corridor over to a committee of governors, and
privatization of the long-distance trains or perhaps their elimination.
Time will tell.
* It's nonsense to say that you need to separate the infrastructure to
prevent bleeding (of capital funds to operations). Our money is
appropriated for operations, capital and debt service, and we're very
vigorous about keeping the buckets separate. Setting up a subsidiary
would be enormously complicated, probably subjecting the board to
lawsuits. The subsidiary would present a real risk for our very manual,
fragile accounting system. It would provide confusion, not clarity. It
is a specious argument to say you need to create a subsidiary for
clarity, that's nonsense in my opinion.
* My concern has always been that the Northeast Corridor should be a
vertically integrated railway [i.e. track and operations controlled by
same organization].
Early in the hearing, Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Chuck Schumer
(D-NY) and Reps. Mike Castle (R-DE) and Jim Costa (D-CA) testified. Many
legislators praised Gunn highly. Much of the hearing examined whether
Amtrak's board is legitimate both now and when key decisions were made
in the past. Schumer said, "We're calling on the President to send
Congress a full list of five nominations. He must follow the letter of
the law and consult with [senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid (D-NV). The
board and the President's actions have put Amtrak's future in great
danger. It is cloudy. There is no clear legal consensus that the board
has the authority to act."
Sorry for so much e-mail lately, but this is an important issue. If you are tired of getting these report about Gunn & Amtrak, e-mail me back and I will delete you form our list
xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx
Rail Passenger Association of California
xxx-xxx-xxxx
www.RailPAC.org
