Passenger Trains > Amtrak Special Employee Advisory

More on Amtrak's current financial situation... Came out today.


Dear fellow employees,

I promised that I would keep you updated on the state of our business. Last week, I shared with you that we have been underperforming against our budget for some time. I am writing you again so soon because our revenue management team just reviewed Amtrak’s final performance metrics for the month of January. As a result, there are some concerns I want to share with you, and some actions we are going to start taking as a company to address revenue and cost issues.

First, we are falling further behind our budget commitment for the fiscal year. Our ticket revenue projections for FY 2016 have gotten worse in February, as gas prices remain low and market conditions remain soft.

Next, I appreciate the work that everyone has done to help us reduce our costs – but I have reviewed the recommended cuts, and in many cases, we are delaying or eliminating investments that are critical to our future while not looking at underlying cost issues.

Our challenge is to keep building Amtrak for the future while managing our way through this difficult financial situation today. Between new safety regulations, technology upgrades and infrastructure needs, we need to make sure that we are continually upgrading our skills and tools.

You need to understand that our industry peers are working through the same challenge – and in many cases, they are taking drastic actions. Just two weeks ago, Norfolk Southern announced it was reducing its workforce by 2,000 employees by 2020. Union Pacific has also made headcount reductions. Further, BNSF Railway recently laid off 100 people at yards in North Dakota and Minnesota, and CSX recently said it would begin streamlining its mechanical operations at 16 locations. These companies are preparing for a new industry normal, just as we must.

For now, we are taking action that will impact future hiring. Effective immediately, we are introducing a new approval process for open positions. When an Amtrak employee leaves the company, the position can no longer automatically be kept open. All vacant positions will be eliminated. A department that wants to fill the position will need to get approval from its Company Operating Team (COT) member, who then must ultimately get approval from me. To be clear, our commitment to safety and security remains unconditional. We will make sure that our Safety, Police, EMCS and Train Operation positions continue to get the resources and people they need.

This is a meaningful action. We have many positions at Amtrak that have been held open for a long time. When these positions are left open, the funding for these positions stays within the department – and can be used for other purposes, as the department sees fit. This practice is not an efficient use of our resources. This action will force all of us to be more purposeful in how many people we hire, how we staff our operations, and how we use our people the most efficiently and productively.

I am committed to taking this process one step at a time – and if we can do this without impacting current jobs, that would be my desire. Our customers and stakeholders are demanding that we operate at the highest levels of efficiency and performance. Their expectations of us are much higher now – and meeting them will be no easy task for any of us. But I am confident that all of us, working together, can meet these challenges.

I know that many of you are concerned about your jobs. Once again, I ask that you continue working together to find new and creative ways to generate revenue, save costs and work more efficiently. I also want to thank you for the work you have done in improving our safety and customer satisfaction performance year-over-year. Our continued progress in these areas is essential to our ability to operate successfully.

I will keep you updated on our progress. Thank you for your continued support.


Sincerely,

Joe Boardman
President and CEO

Some of this makes a lot of sense, and should have been done years ago. But, it's good to hear changes are on the way.


Ticket revenue is down, expenses are up. Not good in a largely fixed cost outfit like Amtrak. And in an organization where many positions are governed by contract provisions, changes need to respect the agreement.

The tone of the letter suggests big changes. Soon.

Posted from Android

Inconsistent and rude customer service by OBS and some station Gate Dragons have been driving passengers away for years. Boardman simply will not focus on that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/16 14:56 by joemvcnj.

The gate dragons of CHI, NYP, PHL and WAS I've encountered over the years have NOTHING on the conductor I had on the northbound Vermonter this week from NYP!  While I praise her efforts to ensure there would be adequate seating for all boarding passengers, her attitude and rigid enforcement of 'nothing on the vacant seat next to you' were as far from pleasant as I have ever encountered in 40+ years of Amtrak travel!

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Inconsistent and rude customer service by OBS and
> some station Gate Dragons have been driving
> passengers away for years. Boardman simply will
> not focus on that.

Surely you aren't refering to those, tactful, pleasant and helpful Gate Dragons at CUS?  Are you?
Thank God we don't have them anywhere near Naperville...
 

Who Me ? Oh my, how could you think that. Actually, it was a Philly one I had a blow up with last April (and I won). 

Amtrak's loadings are down significantly in New Jersey, except at the Airport, which has increased and held the State's overall loss to 2% last year. Killing 2/3rds of Princeton Jct stops in 2008 (and I do not mean the Clockers) cost them 1/3rd of its ridership, about 17,000 loadings per year, where it has plateaued since. It did not pop up at Metropark and Trenton to compensate. If you value those 17K at $60 each, that is about $1 million per year pissed away.

There are tremendous opportunities if they stopped a few Keystone and Regional trains per day at Secaucus, and have direct transfer access from NJT from Bergen County, with one million population.

I have little sympathy for an Amtrak that willfully shoots itself in the ass and is too arrogant to admit a mistake and comes up with cockamamie excuses when requested to rethink.
 



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/16 03:57 by joemvcnj.

NYC4096 Wrote:
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> Thank God we don't have them anywhere near
> Naperville...
=========================================

Naperville is lucky.  Its station personnel are Metra.

 

Can we please just top adding to government entitlement programs and give Amtrak just a small portion of the savings. Would be enough to run it for years. As to the employees. Why does Amtak tollerent such consistanly rude behavior on the part of a small portion of it's employees? They work for us. Not the other way around.

GenePoon Wrote:
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>
> Naperville is lucky.  Its station personnel are
> Metra.


Actually the personnel are BNSF.

have ANY of the presidential candidates made any statements regarding increasing amtrak's funding?

66

Back in the day, the Amtrak President would go and ask Congress for a supplemental appropriation.

mp51w Wrote:
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> Back in the day, the Amtrak President would go and
> ask Congress for a supplemental appropriation.

Well I already suggested that one, but was shot down down on another thread.

There is something to be said about Princeton Junction. You stop a peak period train there and you are going to pick up a LOT of monthly passholders who would rather ride Amtrak into NYP and back to Princeton Junction than Amtrak. THAT area has money. I know Amtrak did something here with the switches, but I think eliminating Princeton Junction as a stop for some morning trains and evening trains should be re-examined especially now.

EMD-F125 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> More on Amtrak's current financial situation...
> Came out today.
>
>
> Dear fellow employees,
>
>.......Once again, I ask that you continue working
> together to find new and creative ways to generate
> revenue, save costs and work more efficiently......
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Joe Boardman
> President and CEO

WOW. Pick me up from the floor on that one. Did he actually just ask the employees - on the front lines - to come up with suggestions? But will suggestions be heard and realized????

Bigger things to come.......I agree.........how secure is that Viewliner funding. So glad the baggage cars came out first. They definitely produce more money than a Viewliner sleeper.

goneon66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> have ANY of the presidential candidates made any
> statements regarding increasing amtrak's funding?
>
> 66

Here are links to two candidate websites and one statement from someone who may enter the 2016 presidential race:

Statement on Passenger Rail from Candidate A's website

Statement on improving freight and passenger rail from Candidate B's website

Statement from one who has not yet declared his candidacy on the need for investment in high-speed rail

Is Amtrak running the Ski Train this year? I think the answer is yes on this one, but not sure if the same number of frequencies are offerred.

Amtrak is not running any Denver Ski Trains right? How much did the ONE weekend charter produce? If they would have run 10 trips, shy am I thinking this would have produced $800K in ticket revenue?

All these were "special charters." Not sure that special charter revenue is where it should be - all considered.

Are there other special charters that Amtrak should be looking at? The charters typically make a positive contribution to the financials - or at least they are supposed to. In the winter, Amtrak should be looking at ski resorts to run charters to. I know that this also involves freight RR involvement.  

BRAtkinson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The gate dragons of CHI, NYP, PHL and WAS I've
> encountered over the years have NOTHING on the
> conductor I had on the northbound Vermonter this
> week from NYP!  While I praise her efforts to
> ensure there would be adequate seating for all
> boarding passengers, her attitude and rigid
> enforcement of 'nothing on the vacant seat next to
> you' were as far from pleasant as I have ever
> encountered in 40+ years of Amtrak travel!


Certainly hope you reported her to Amtrak. I would have requested the employees name and if the did not give it to me would inform them that I would report them to the company with the dàte, time, train number, and approximate location of the train. This poor attitude of employees needs to be reported.

For the record; I always report good service and courteous employees as well.

The employees are any companies greatest asset; however a bad one really hurts.

Posted from Android

Well, isn't that's just "Special."

When the going gets tough, Boardman...MICROMANAGES.

< There is something to be said about Princeton Junction. You stop a peak period train there and you are going to pick up a LOT of monthly passholders who would rather ride Amtrak into NYP and back to Princeton Junction than Amtrak. THAT area has money. I know Amtrak did something here with the switches, but I think eliminating Princeton Junction as a stop for some morning trains and evening trains should be re-examined especially now.>

You are confusing Princeton Junction Amtrak stops with rush hour Amtrak Clocker Service. NJT Monthly passes are no longer valid on Amtrak. When I said 2/3rd of Amtrak service was removed, I was not counting the Clockers, which were long since gone. There was Amtrak service throughout the day at PJC, at one time including the Pennsylvanian and Vermonter, and it prevailed long after the switches were removed. There is a Princeton and Mercer County market to be servied that is not served by NJT. The only thing preventing its resumption is Amtrak's stubbornness and arrogance. Riding on the local track between Midway and Trenton is sometimes done anyway, and it won't harm OTP. Amtrak and NJT train are usually sufficiently spaced. 

Clocker Service was subsidized entirely by NJT, they were de facto NJT trains run with Amtrak equipment, and 3 or 4 have been replaced by real NJT trains.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/16 03:39 by joemvcnj.

There are two windows at Naperville, a Metra window run by BNSF and an Amtrak window run by Amtrak.