Passenger Trains > What Boardman sent to Railway Age

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/amtrak-where-is-the-public-input-where-is-the-transparency/
Note his observations that commuter railroads who may not be PTC compliant by year's end have not announced intentions to discontinue operations and that Anderson's proposals on cutting LD trains would not withstand public scrutiny.
Andy

way to go, joe!! i never thought i'd miss the guy, but, man, i miss the guy.

-- eliyahu

We had our issues with him, but there were certain red lines that he would never cross that Anderson has.
Note Moorman's silence.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> We had our issues with him, but there were certain
> red lines that he would never cross that Anderson
> has.
> Note Moorman's silence.

Don't be so rough on Moorman. He is busy working on something else to make the fans happy:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4550390

Boardman, “the political hack.” If he had done his job rather riding in his private car, you would not be complaining about someone who knows how to run a business, ie Richard Anderson... You might not want to face facts but Boardman was a bureaucrat who went whichever the wind was blowing... With this article, Boardman sounds like Comey.

The segments of Amtrak are going to triage... you save those who are or become viable and you let those who can’t make die a natural death... Even in the series MASH, they could not save them all.

YY

YukonYeti Wrote:
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> Boardman, “the political hack.” If he had
> done his job rather riding in his private car, you
> would not be complaining about someone who knows
> how to run a business, ie Richard Anderson... You
> might not want to face facts but Boardman was a
> bureaucrat who went whichever the wind was
> blowing... With this article, Boardman sounds like
> Comey ….


Thank you YY for saying succinctly what I have been trying to say.

However, I compare Boardman to John Kerry.

Jack

Again with political non-sequiturs. Boardman is like Comey, no he's like Kerry. This from long time posters as well. Obfuscatory and useless. Keep on topic, please.

caprr Wrote:
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> Again with political non-sequiturs. Boardman is
> like Comey, no he's like Kerry. This from long
> time posters as well. Obfuscatory and useless.
> Keep on topic, please.

OK, I'll fill in the blanks. Former Secretary of State Kerry tries to save his Iran deal. Former Amtrak CEO Boardman works against the current management in trying to save his SW Chief deal.

Both deals have their shortcomings which the current people in charge have been left to fix.

In my opinion, people who have had their day should butt out. I feel that way whether I am pro or con on what is in question.

eliyahu Wrote:
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> way to go, joe!! i never thought i'd miss the guy,
> but, man, i miss the guy.
>
> -- eliyahu


Never thought I'd miss the S.P. either. Now I do. Time brings perspective.

YukonYeti Wrote:
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> Boardman, “the political hack.” If he had
> done his job rather riding in his private car, you
> would not be complaining about someone who knows
> how to run a business, ie Richard Anderson... You
> might not want to face facts but Boardman was a
> bureaucrat who went whichever the wind was
> blowing... With this article, Boardman sounds like
> Comey.

Boardman did do his job.

1) He bought over 100 cars of new long distance equipment to expand capacity and replace worn out cars.
2) He bought new electric engines.
3) He was part of getting $8 billion in stimulus funds for Amtrak and passenger corridors, including dozens of new engines, new corridor equipment and new Talgo sets. Many of the long term projects funded are just now coming on line. Also included rebuilding dozens of wrecked or out of service cars and engines for a quick burst of capacity growth for the system. Almost all of that money went to national system or state corridors, not the Northeast Corridor.
4) He got funding and tripartite funding agreements for needed improvements to the Empire Builder and Southwest Chief routes where Amtrak is one of the few trains running and saved those routes (remind me about how Graham Claytor did saving the Broadway in Ohio and Indiana, or the Silver Star in Virginia, oh, that's right, he didn't).
5) No trains were discontinued on his watch.
6) Record Amtrak ridership year after year under his stewardship, including squeezing growth into the fixed capacity long distance network.
7) Innovative ideas like long distance business class were implemented.

And you guys complained every single day he was running the show.

abyler Wrote:
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> Boardman did do his job.

Thanks for that summary. Myself, I never did put him at the bottom of the list of Amtrak CEO's, although I was critical of some pretty wild things he said when he first took the job.

Pleasing everyone is hard when it comes to trains.

My opinion though is that Boardman should butt out of the current controversy so far as taking a public stance. I think that we have a real risk that his actions could become counter-productive in this squabble.

Jack