Gunn: 'Federal goal is to scuttle Amtrak'

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Gunn: 'Federal goal is to scuttle Amtrak'

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Amtrak Chief Executive David Gunn told a St. Louis audience Thursday (Aug. 25) that the passenger railroad is not in a crisis, then blasted the U.S. Transportation Department for a mind-set he says could destroy Amtrak, according to this report by Tim McLaughlin published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"If Amtrak fails, intercity passenger rail will be gone in this country," Gunn said at a Downtown St. Louis Partnership breakfast at the Sheraton hotel. "If we can't make it at Amtrak, we're all in trouble."

When Gunn joined Amtrak in 2002 as an appointee of President George W. Bush, the national passenger railroad was in a financial crisis and weeks away from missing its payroll. "We're not a company in crisis today," Gunn said.

Crisis is a relative term at Amtrak, where turmoil has been a way of life since Congress created the railroad in 1970 to provide the passenger service that freight railroads no longer wanted. Since then, the federal government has subsidized Amtrak's service to the tune of $30 billion. But as Gunn quickly notes, highway and air travel have received nearly $2 trillion in subsidies during that time.

Amtrak requested $1.8 billion for fiscal 2006, but Gunn said $1.45 billion will adequately keep its capital improvement program on track. The House and Senate have approved Amtrak spending of $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively

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[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

Gunn is turning into a great politician... ask for more money than you need so that when you don't get it all, you still get all the money you actually need plus some more to throw away.

 

[saxman]

It's not Gunn alone that requested $1.8 billion. The entire Amtrak board requested that much.

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

The same board that includes Norman Mineta?

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Must have been a moment of temporary sanity.

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

My point remains that Amtrak is acting like any other government entity vying for budget dollars: ask for more than you need and hope you get lucky when it gets cut. Unless of course you're asking for tax dollars for a pork barrel project as part of the highway bill

 

[AmtrakWPK]

No, they're not! They need a great deal more than that in order to bring the infrastructure and equipment up to a level of maintenance and operation that it really ought to have. WAY more than that. Gunn has never said otherwise that I know of. By "enough", he means enough that Amtrak will not have to cease operations and go bankrupt. There's a HUGE difference. The amount that the Bush administration had proposed would have simply forced Amtrak to cease operations. Amtrak would have been killed. Period. The amount currently proposed by the legislators would allow continued operations and probably some measure of slow improvement in infrastructure. How much does Amtrak NEED? You'll get a different number depending on who you ask. It depends on whether you want basic status quo, third-world-country level, with equipment maintained by the two primary tools, duct tape and WD-40 (if it moves and shouldn't: duct tape. If it doesn't move and should: WD-40), or maybe you would like a passenger train system that more resembles an industrialized, civilized country, like France, or the U.K., or Japan, or Australia (etc.), in which case it will take MANY billions just in infrastructure to undo decades of neglect by Washington.

 

[AmtrakFan]

The same board that includes Norman Mineta?

Norm never attends a meeting. So he wasn't present.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Good point. If he actually attended meetings he might learn the facts re passenger rail and perhaps also discover that the stuff he's been saying about Amtrak has been coming from the wrong end of the horse.

 

[Rick]

AmtrakWPK.......Well said!!! LOL!!!

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

Sadly, imo throwing more money at Amtrak won't save it, only prolong it's downfall. However, having the states that use the NEC subsidize it, instead of profitable long haul trains, and bringing Amtrak employees up to a comparable level of productivity as private industry will go alot further than more money.

 

[sechs]

Are you saying that bankrupting it is really a better course?

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

I said nothing of bankruptcy, I spoke of completely hypothetical scenarios because it's commonly held that Amtrak will continue to spend big bucks in the NEC and the overall productivity will not increase either (my most recent trip on the Coast Starlate a perfect example^-^).

 

[Guest_Timetableflagman]

Removing long-distance-compatible equipment from the Northeast and filling long-distance routes with it and its similarly reallocated staff for double daily service on the long-distance routes, leaving the some hourly Northeast Corridor service to the regional commuter operators paying wheelage to AMTRAK, is a possible immediate solution to eliminating the reputed cost drain of the Northeast Corridor on the rest of the AMTRAK system. Other Corridors may be included. The increase in availability both in terms of two trains a day and more reasonable departure times made available by double daily trains six hours apart of three or four coaches/one dinette (with dining cars converted to and their staffs divided to staff the dinettes)/one sleeper each, system-wide, could prove to be a real attraction for AMTRAK's potential ridership and revenue especially with commuters.

Restoring Floridian/Southwind, Pioneer/Desert Wind, extended Heartland Flyer/"Twin Star Rocket", Shoshoni/El Pasoan and combined, rerouted Piedmont/Southwest Chief routes with Northeast and or Crescent and Texas Eagle equipment could make AMTRAK's system very interconnectible for passengers. Consider currently being routed through Chicago rather than to go directly from Little Rock to Memphis by train! However aligned, such an even distribution of AMTRAK's routes could put all destinations some three hundred miles or roughly six hours by bus to an AMTRAK route.

With increased revenue financing and full payment of railroads' cost of access, passenger trains could be reasonably scheduled coast to coast in three nights or less. These, together with assigning management to onboard service positions on increased train consists and extra board--hiring subsequent management at labor rates of compensation and fusing the distinction between the two--could have AMTRAK living within its means and providing a more reliable and sustainable service for farepaying passengers, all without the elimination of current positions for AMTRAK personnel.

 

[trainflyer]

I just returned to NYC from DC on the Noon Acela. I was one of 3 passengers in the First car. The cost was minimally more, so I upgraded.

There were two attendants handling my car. Plus three attendants in the lounge at DC.

I know that the work rules are an issue for management, but moving people around at Union Station or on the train should be something they could do when the car is nearly empty.

On the demand side of the equation, Amtrak could do a better job filling Acela both business and first class. Amtrak has got to make the NEC profitable (all of it, not just Acela) so that it can turn its attention to the serious needs throughout the country.