By J. Bruce Richardson, Corridor Rail Development Corporation; February 4, 2022
What if you have a railroad, but doesn’t think it’s a railroad?
The answer is, you have Amtrak.
Railroads are specific companies with a specific mission – moving freight or passengers unimpeded from one point to another over a given guideway/track and infrastructure.
The people who own and operate railroads from the earliest days in the beginning of the 19th Century have always been a special breed of people – hardy, dedicated and focused on the job at hand – who were called “railroaders.” Many have aspired to be called a railroader, but it takes a dedicated level of professionalism and recognition by one’s peers. Receiving a paycheck from a railroad is a good start, but the designation of being a railroader is earned, not lightly applied.
There are many in the non-employee railroad world who fancy themselves as railroaders, and some probably are, but the designation is not applicable to but a very few.
In the context of this communique we’re talking about railroad senior managers, not the dedicated men and women who keep the trains running – when they are allowed to run their trains.
There is an old truth amongst railroaders that makes many smile: “My Job: It’s not my job to run the train, the whistle I can’t blow, It’s not for me to say how far the train’s allowed to go, I’m not allowed to blow off steam, nor even clang the bell, but let the damn thing jump the track and see who catches Hell!”
Railroads perhaps has been infamous for senior management “assigning blame” for various problems to their underlings when the real problem was the decisions made by senior managers.
In the case of Amtrak – right now – it’s a matter of qualified leadership. Above the frontline managers, are there any – by classic definition – railroaders in charge?
In the past, Amtrak has had an occasional real railroader running the railroad, but they have been few and far between. Perhaps the greatest railroader to run Amtrak was W. Graham Claytor. His extensive experience at a premier passenger train operator – Southern Railway – greatly influenced his feelings towards running Amtrak like a railroad, not as a political organization.
Others with more than a passing railroad experience on their resume included David Gunn and most recently, Charles “Wick” Moorman, also of the former Southern Railway/Norfolk Southern heritage.
Mr. Moorman was perhaps the brightest light to run Amtrak in many years, but, alas, it was a “retirement job” for him and his tenure was too short.
Others who have occupied Amtrak’s president’s office have included the assorted vice presidents of Class I railroads, but, like many in today’s corporate culture, have not made full careers as railroaders, but have drifted in and out of railroads and other non-related companies, ever seeking the next rung up the corporate ladder.
Too many in Amtrak’s president’s office have been state and federal bureaucrats who were skilled at being politicians and running departments of transportation, but not specifically skilled at running a railroad. There is a huge difference between running a bureaucracy and running a railroad. Both can be huge organizations, but the end result is different. Bureaucrats were never answerable to customers, such as large shippers with “just in time” deliveries crucial to their operations or the ongoing need to keep trains moving in all types of weather to keep industry moving.
Heads of large bureaucracies are often more concerned with the next annual budget and securing funding and how they can expand their bureaucratic empire for more power.
In Amtrak’s early, formative years it was nothing more than a conduit to funnel federal monies to the private railroads which ran Amtrak trains by contract. Dining car departments still expertly ran dining cars, trains were dispatched with aplomb, and a certain pride was maintained in “their” trains which now were no longer considered a financial burden.
The first president of Amtrak was Roger Lewis who was a former Assistant United States Secretary of the Air Force and then had a questionably successful stint as CEO of General Dynamics. After General Dynamics, when Mr. Lewis was at Amtrak he had some successes through the early teething problems of a new organization such as improved reservations systems and better onboard services. But, while he was there, Amtrak discontinued half of its passenger routes after they were assumed. Post Amtrak, Mr. Lewis continued his career by working with companies in finance and telecommunications.
This was not a good start for Amtrak. Even though the company was fortunate to have Paul Reistrup take the place of Mr. Lewis, much damage was done.
With Mr. Lewis and then after Mr. Reistrup was the beginning of a too long custom of the Amtrak Board of Directors not seeking out the best railroaders to run the company, but, often who was the best politician.
One of the earliest, crucial mistakes made by Amtrak’s founding fathers was to headquarter the company in Washington, D.C.
Even though operations were centered in Philadelphia with former Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central personnel who came over to Amtrak, the fact the headquarters was in Washington opened the company to be part of the endless cycle of federal employees rotating from agency to agency as opportunities arise. The Washington Amtrak bureaucrats often are not there because they like to run trains, but because a job opening came up with the right salary and the right benefits.
The original railroaders who came into Amtrak in 1971 and shortly thereafter were people who liked to run trains. The thought of outright cancelling trains as is common today would have been foreign to them; can’t run the train on its published route? Find a detour and keep the train moving.
They were all passenger department people who understood their mission: sell tickets to passengers, fill the trains, and provide an acceptable level of passenger service.
The next generation of Amtrak people were the “corporate children” of those original railroaders and were taught by their predecessors how to run trains and adopted the same attitudes as before: run trains, deliver passengers safely to their destinations.
By the time the next generation came into the company much of the original philosophy had disappeared and it was replaced by schemes hatched by mindless bureaucrats. The company philosophically internally lost its mandate to run trains and focused instead on financial aspects.
This was the period when management was introduced to perhaps the most destructive policy the company ever promulgated: Managers were rewarded with bonuses and promotions for how much money they did not spend instead of how much new revenue was created or new load factors reached.
This was also the period when a corporate spokesman for one of the major Class I railroads labeled Amtrak as a provider of “novelty transportation” resulting in Amtrak being a hindrance to the efficient operation of freight trains.
Unfortunately, this seemed to be a signal to some in the Amtrak senior executive ranks that it wasn’t necessary to run every train every day.
The greatest ill-wind which swept into Amtrak came with the appointment of the late Joseph Boardman to run Amtrak. From Wikipedia:
“(A)n American transportation executive who served as President and CEO of Amtrak from 2008 to 2016. Boardman was the longest-serving Commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) from July 1997 until resigning to head the FRA. Before taking over Amtrak, Boardman had been the Administrator of the United States Federal Railroad Administration. Boardman became the second-longest serving head of Amtrak, after W. Graham Claytor, Jr. in the 1980s. Railway Age magazine named Boardman as its 51st ‘Railroader of the Year’ in its January 9, 2014, issue.
“… In 1966, he volunteered for military service in the United States Air Force, serving in South Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. Upon receiving an honorable discharge from the Air Force, he studied Agriculture Economics at Cornell University, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1974, and graduated with a master’s degree in Management Science from Binghamton University in 1983.
“… Boardman’s first jobs in transportation were managing the transit authorities for the cities of Rome and Utica in Upstate New York. In 1981, he became the commissioner of public transportation for Broome County, New York, which includes the city of Binghamton. He left government service in 1988 to start his own transportation management company, called Progressive Transportation Services.
“New York Governor George Pataki nominated Boardman in 1997 to serve as commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). Boardman went on to become the longest-serving commissioner in NYSDOT history, remaining in that position from July 1997 through May 2005. During his term as commissioner, he also served a stint as chair of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Rail Transportation (SCORT).”
It’s a professional bureaucrat’s dream to go from a local city level to the state level and then be elevated to the federal level.
When he was initially made president of Amtrak it was on an interim basis to replace the departed Alexander Kummant who had been in the job for two years. After a little over a year the board of directors proclaimed they had found their man in Boardman and made the job permanent.
That is when the senior management brain-drain of the few remaining true professional railroaders in senior positions began the race for the exit doors. They saw foolish and short-sighted policies from the very top filtering down and they were expected to implement them while in the process of ruining their professional reputations. They wisely left.
The replacements for true railroad operating professionals became other non-railroad bureaucrats. Long-held safety protocols went out the door. Long-held operating practices were discarded. Lives were lost.
The worst result of this chaos was the now-firm company belief that it wasn’t necessary to run trains. “Cancelled, with no alternate transportation provided” became the new watchword.
If there is the least hint of inclement weather Amtrak with broad strokes cancels trains with the worthless caveat of “… out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our customers and employees, Amtrak has made the following temporary service adjustments …”
This is the result of non-railroad bureaucrats making decisions instead of dedicated railroaders with a mission to run trains.
Every time trains are outright cancelled it’s an insult to the frontline onboard services and train and engine crews who are willing to do their jobs but can’t because some senior manager cancels trains which will result in budget savings and therefore a better bonus or promotion.
Stephen Gardner, the current president of Amtrak whose job before joining Amtrak was as a staffer on Capitol Hill carries on the unfortunate tradition of bureaucrats – not railroaders – in charge of the company. While his company biography touts a limited amount of railroad experience in his early adult years it’s difficult to see how that contributes to the duties of the senior-most executive of the company.
As long as Amtrak continues down the road of being run by Washington-based bureaucrats instead of real railroaders it’s difficult to see a bright future for Amtrak. No matter how much money is thrown at the company by Congress, if the recipients of the federal largess are not qualified to spend it wisely for the benefit of fulfilling the company’s charter purpose of running a national system railroad efficiently, then it is merely money wasted.
Through the years there have been many qualified candidates for the Amtrak Board of Directors to choose from for new company leadership. Many have been railroaders, others have been visionaries who have a deep understanding of the economics of railroading and how to create a vision for the future. Time and again, the board has made poor choices, resulting in a constantly-crippled company. Every current member of the board of directors has out-lived their initial appointment and is only serving until the White House appoints new board members and they are confirmed by the Senate. New members can’t come soon enough.