Passenger Trains > Amtrak LDT GM Announced

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/prdailynews/news.asp?id=33259

Thank you for sharing the news!

Did anyone ever see this position advertised on Amtrak's HR website - www.amtrak.com/career-opportunities ? I didn't - and I have been looking for it over the past few months as it would have been interested to see the posted job description.

I also haven't seen the GM for state supported services advertised.

Some senior level positions have negotiable salaries, and a firm may be reluctant to post its offering salary. Especially if it has somebody in mind, which is often the case.

Some positions also require head hunters to go through the motions and round up candidates before the anointed and predetermined job candidate is announced. Waste of time, but the other people get some visibility and often meet the board, super-senior managers, etc.

[Doug] Varn currently is the railroad's chief of product planing and financial analysis in the marketing department. In the new position, he will be accountable for safety, customer satisfaction, ridership, on-time performance and financial results for Amtrak's long-distance business lines.

Sure hope that its not just to re-arrange the deck chairs ... If he has good skills maybe he can avert the demise of LDTs.

It would be useful to send each LDT passenger, or at least each sleeping car passenger and a sample of coach passengers, an invitation to an online "how did we do" survey. You can put a decent survey on Survey Monkey for under $200, including labor. Pull the email off the ticket purchase contact info, and tie the code on the ticket back to the trip, and customer's endpoints. When the customer clicks on the survey link, the ID info goes with the response.

It would be a great way to identify employees who should be rewarded, and map areas where improvements are needed. Over time you'd have an inventory of things we do well, and things where we need to do better.

It's not hard to implement

I'll have to ponder this one a little bit. I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. I'm hesitant only because it's Amtrak, and they tend to create positions for people that are only temporary and then those positions disappear a few years later. I'd like to know what his specific jobs duties are, and whatever those duties will be, who has been doing them all along prior to this position being created? Did they create this position with specific, customer-oriented goals in mind? Or did they do it to give a cushy job to a long-time Amtrak employee before retiring? I don't have the answers---just asking the questions.

coaststarlight99 Wrote:
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> I'll have to ponder this one a little bit. I'm not
> sure if this is good news or bad news. I'm
> hesitant only because it's Amtrak, and they tend
> to create positions for people that are only
> temporary and then those positions disappear a few
> years later. I'd like to know what his specific
> jobs duties are, and whatever those duties will
> be, who has been doing them all along prior to
> this position being created? Did they create this
> position with specific, customer-oriented goals in
> mind? Or did they do it to give a cushy job to a
> long-time Amtrak employee before retiring? I don't
> have the answers---just asking the questions.

From the article:

Since joining Amtrak in 1973, Varn has held positions in a range of areas, including vice president of planning and finance for the former intercity business unit.

You may be right with that - 39 years with Amtrak so I expect he's not going to be around for very long.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> It would be useful to send each LDT passenger, or
> at least each sleeping car passenger and a sample
> of coach passengers, an invitation to an online
> "how did we do" survey. You can put a decent
> survey on Survey Monkey for under $200, including
> labor. Pull the email off the ticket purchase
> contact info, and tie the code on the ticket back
> to the trip, and customer's endpoints. When the
> customer clicks on the survey link, the ID info
> goes with the response.
>

I'm a 1K (100,000 miles a year) flyer with United and I get one after most every flight. E-mail is tied to FF program & e-ticket. Not hard to do at all.

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Cumbresfan Wrote:
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> You may be right with that - 39 years with Amtrak
> so I expect he's not going to be around for very
> long.

Depends on whether he started with Amtrak out of high school or out of college. My searches haven't found anything on that.

Cumbresfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Sure hope that its not just to re-arrange the deck
> chairs ... If he has good skills maybe he can
> avert the demise of LDTs.

The appointment is part of Boardman's reorganization of Amtrak.

It splits the company into separate units for the NE Corridor and the Long Distance trains,
a Chief Transportation Officer and a Chief of Customer Service.

Michael J. DeCataldo, Jr. was appointed General Manager of Northeast Corridor Services in mid-October.

I don't know how the Midwest and West Coast Corridor operations will figure into the scheme,
but if anything, the new setup makes it easier to lop off the long distance trains entirely,
since they would be standing by themselves without other services dependent on their organization.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/12 21:44 by GenePoon.

Oh boy! More management! Just what Amtrak needs!

Posted from iPhone

I think the insight that Mr. Varn's tenure is likely to be short-lived is accurate. I think we are likely to see a new DOT secretary and a new FRA administrator with the new administration - which would also give an opportunity for Mr. Boardman to exit. At that point, other changes are likely to occur. (There are going to be some interesting discussions here in the next 3-6 months).

The next "big" item will be the release of the next group of Product Improvement Plans - Actually they are about a month late when compared to the release schedule set in previous years.

rrhistorian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the insight that Mr. Varn's tenure is
> likely to be short-lived is accurate. I think we
> are likely to see a new DOT secretary and a new
> FRA administrator with the new administration -
> which would also give an opportunity for Mr.
> Boardman to exit. At that point, other changes are
> likely to occur. (There are going to be some
> interesting discussions here in the next 3-6
> months).
>
> The next "big" item will be the release of the
> next group of Product Improvement Plans - Actually
> they are about a month late when compared to the
> release schedule set in previous years.

Hasn't Ray LaHood already announced he's leaving? There was a thread about that a few months ago.

So far, Clinton (State), Geithner (Treasury), LaHood (Transportation) have already signaled they are leaving, and Holder (Justice) has said he'll have an announcement before the end of the year.

I wish the guy luck on this sector, especially the way most people on here and in general thinks the LD trains days are numbered! How long has that been going on, like the past 5-6 years?