Passenger Trains > Amtrak CEO

I am wondering what CEO Anderson thinks of us Railfans and the RPA...When he was at Delta he was King Farouk, any decision he made probably had no backlash. Now when he makes something public he gets and onslaught of responses from the railfan community. I am hoping he gets feed up and leaves.

Any comments?

If he thinks they are politically impotent, he will simply ignore them. Also depends on how professionally they appear. Time will tell.

Frankly, some of the comments here would stir me to offer diapers for the authors.

I don't think any professional would pay any attention to the childish rants that I've read here.

If you want the things you are crying about, bring cash. Cubic Miles of Cash.

Brian

choodue, you are so right.

While will intended, letters based on some of the wild remarks here, could hurt the entire effort.

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am wondering what CEO Anderson thinks of us
> Railfans and the RPA...When he was at Delta he was
> King Farouk, any decision he made probably had no
> backlash. Now when he makes something public he
> gets and onslaught of responses from the railfan
> community. I am hoping he gets feed up and
> leaves.
>
> Any comments?

Hah! Clearly you have no idea what the Delta User Community which is an order or two of magnitude larger than the Amtrak one, and is worldwide, is capable of, in the way of abusing and disabusing the CEO. LOL!

choodude Wrote:
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> Frankly, some of the comments here would stir me
> to offer diapers for the authors.

What I find particularly laughable, is the crying over private car restrictions (since it was never really a ban) from folks who will never be able to afford one, or even charter one.

In essence, that particular group is putting the cart before the horse, and missing the bigger issue. Without an interconnected, long distance network of trains to pull them, PV's will have very limited places to go. Amtrak could turn around and say, "Sure, we'll run 'em" on what is left, but that will certainly limit your choices.

Fight the bigger fight. Protect the long distance network first, THEN worry about the PV issue.

Posted from Android

Jishnu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bluesboyst Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I am wondering what CEO Anderson thinks of us
> > Railfans and the RPA...When he was at Delta he
> was
> > King Farouk, any decision he made probably had
> no
> > backlash. Now when he makes something public
> he
> > gets and onslaught of responses from the
> railfan
> > community. I am hoping he gets feed up and
> > leaves.
> >
> > Any comments?
>
> Hah! Clearly you have no idea what the Delta User
> Community which is an order or two of magnitude
> larger than the Amtrak one, and is worldwide, is
> capable of, in the way of abusing and disabusing
> the CEO. LOL!

Really, since you know a lot about the Delta User Community... please fill us in.

choodude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frankly, some of the comments here would stir me
> to offer diapers for the authors.
>
> I don't think any professional would pay any
> attention to the childish rants that I've read
> here.
>
> If you want the things you are crying about, bring
> cash. Cubic Miles of Cash.
>
> Brian

You missed my point Brian.

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jishnu Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > bluesboyst Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> <<snip>>
> >
> > Hah! Clearly you have no idea what the Delta
> User
> > Community which is an order or two of magnitude
> > larger than the Amtrak one, and is worldwide,
> is
> > capable of, in the way of abusing and
> disabusing
> > the CEO. LOL!
>
> Really, since you know a lot about the Delta User
> Community... please fill us in.

Here ya go. Flyertalk forums, look at the airline frequent flyer section and pick out any one. In the delta forum you see "delta will hear about this" a lot. Bitching about equipment, boarding, food, etc. Just like here !!!!!!

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles-665/

Oh, and be sure to checkout my favorite topic there, titled "Hall of Rants: Whats the Most Random and Pathetic Thing You Can Complain About?" A bunch of people on this board would feel right at home.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/18 14:43 by cabanillas.

Continental Air, and later United, was very sensitive to its high level elite members. Lower level elites and the unwashed were not considered very often.

The old adage says 10% of your customers produce 90% of your profits. Full fare, weekday, 50 trips a year...

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Continental Air, and later United, was very
> sensitive to its high level elite members. Lower
> level elites and the unwashed were not considered
> very often.
>
> The old adage says 10% of your customers produce
> 90% of your profits. Full fare, weekday, 50 trips
> a year...
>
> Posted from Android

Well said. Airlines could give a flip about the back end of the plane. Crews on some refer to it as 'monkey class'. Read all the rants on airline ratings.com Most all the negatives 'flew economy class'. The few positives tend to be from pax up front. On the other hand, a couple of years ago when I dropped off of American's FF top level, I got a phone call from somebody in Dallas asking if anything was the matter. That year I didn't fly as much so just bought bizz class tickets to qualify for top level following year. They gave me 50K miles for talking to them. Returning to trains, I doubt if Anderson reads anything and his minions may show him some railfan comments but it's highly doubtful it will affect what he does or doesn't do.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/18 15:27 by utwazoo.

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am wondering what CEO Anderson thinks of us
> Railfans and the RPA...When he was at Delta he was
> King Farouk, any decision he made probably had no
> backlash. Now when he makes something public he
> gets and onslaught of responses from the railfan
> community. I am hoping he gets feed up and
> leaves.
>
> Any comments?


I doubt he pays much attention to railfans. The desire on this board by many to return to the days of parlor cars and full service dining are probably not doable, nor do they add value to the average coach customer. The days of those services are long gone, and the paying passengers who supported and used them have largely shifted to air or automobile.

In my opinion, the diner suffered from a slow death of a thousand cuts, many of which are outside Amtrak’s control. Food preparation regulations probably cut down on chef creativity. Food allergy concerns restricted the use of certain ingredients and resulted in standardized menus. Furthermore, i haven’t seen data to actually see how many coach passengers used the diner on 29/30/48/49. If it’s not many, which I suspect it is for various reasons (short trip length, high prices, etc) then I feel it is better to repurpose the diner into a first class lounge area, similar to the PPC. I don’t think this will hurt ridership at all on these trains. I think this is likely the best solution going forward.

I think Anderson is making the best of what he has to work with. A lot of Amtrak’s issues are structural and are likely a result of decisions made in 1971 in regards to route structure and frequency on LD routes. Corridor development is the way to go going forward, and then you can look at tying those corridors together with additional LD trains laid over them. The incremental cost at that point would be much smaller than starting a new LD train today. But it will take time and state level commitments.

The thing is guys he's in the so called intent on "improving" Amtrak, and from his track record since he took over back in January, he's been doing a great job at that and also pissing a lot of people off because of it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/18 21:38 by ProAmtrak.

The very wealthy may account for a lot of the sales any company makes, but those very wealthy people do not make any of the products they buy all by themselves. We ordinary people do.

I know that money buys influence, but that is only because those being influenced do not care much about us ordinary people whose day-in-and-day-out work makes all the things they buy and services they use. And they take our work for granted. Which is sad.

There has to be a "line drawn in the sand" by top management that says, "We will go this far and no farther to sell more products or services." And if those top managers do not do that, the government must, so top managers who want to do the right thing do not put their companies aty a big economic disadvantage by so doing. This is a lot like the situation with the railroads more than a century ago, when none of the railroads were willing to spend a lot of money installing air brakes on all of their rolling stock and locomotives -- until the federal government stepped in and ordered all the railroads to do that. Then the railroads practically fell all over themselves to install air brakes, because then none of them would have to take a bigger economic hit than any other railroad because the federal government had made a level playing field for all the railroads by the new rule. And this is what must happen in all areas, so that no one company has to risk being hurt economically if it does the right thing. The government must provide a level playing firld.

Disagree with me about the above? Well, then, how many billionaires have their very own sewage-treatment plants on their property? Where do they get their water and electricity and natural gas? Can these very wealthy people ever pay the total costs of all the highways and airports and planes they use? Can they pay the total costs for building even one Lamborghini or Rolls Royce or Mercedes? By "total costs" I mean the entire cost of mining the metal their fancy cars are made of and the entire cost of manufacturing the glass in all the windows and the entire cost of making the rubber for the tires and making the tires, and then making the entire car.

And just how do they think the homes they live in got built? Did they themselves go to the forest and cut down the trees for the frame and make the fallen trees into 2 x 4 studs and the vehicles that transported the lumber to the site of their home, and did they build their entire home all by themselves? Did they hand-make all the electrical wires in their homes?

I could go on, but I think I have made my point. The very wealthy may represent a large part of the sales any company makes, but those very wealthy people sure did not do all the work necessary to make all of the products they buy -- we ordinary people do!

So -- stop the "you have to be very wealthy to be obeyed" silliness.

[Here endeth the sermon. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. < G > ]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/18 16:49 by Margaret_SP_fan.

Fortunately and Unfortunately, things might change if there was more social media presence on Amtrak. Every week, we see Twitter posts and Instagram pics of people getting dragged off airlines, dogs dying onboard, engines exploding, and overall lack of civility while flying. Fact based, BS based, or made up, it all gets press, and a response by corporate leadership in some way. If this sort of "reporting" occurred on Amtrak trains, things might get investigated or escalated a little quicker.

Just ask Oscar Munoz which is easier, railroads or airlines, when it comes to Public Relations

-Sean

And after that UA incident, where it was actually Chicago Aviation Police doing the beating, dragging, broken bones, teeth, Munoz and Rahmbo Emanuel are STILL there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/18 17:50 by joemvcnj.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If he thinks they are politically impotent, he
> will simply ignore them. Also depends on how
> professionally they appear. Time will tell.

Strike One: MAYBE a tiny handful of the people
have some clout. The vast majority don't.

Strike Two: Professional? Except for the wine
and brie bunch that makes up most of AAPRCO, the
majority of the rest are stereotypical drooling
foamers who seldom (if ever) actually buy tickets
and ride, but want trains to photograph.

Dear REALIST. I finally agree with you. Ha!

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> choodude Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Frankly, some of the comments here would stir
> me
> > to offer diapers for the authors.
> >
> > I don't think any professional would pay any
> > attention to the childish rants that I've read
> > here.
> >
> > If you want the things you are crying about,
> bring
> > cash. Cubic Miles of Cash.
> >
> > Brian
>
> You missed my point Brian.

What would you think of me if I called you "Propellerhead" "Airline Boy" "Delta Boy" ?

Brian

Name calling is the best that the utterly powerless and gutless can resort to to express their dissatisfaction I am afraid :P