Passenger Trains > Andy Byford to Join Amtrak

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/03/23/exclusive-andy-byford-to-join-amtrak/

as an executive vice president,
oversee the development of high-speed rail

At first I thought -- just another guy joining Amtrak to downgrade service and collect bonuses.

But, he seems to have a few things going for him, like --

He spent two years in New York managing buses and the subway (a fantastic rail system handling millions of passenger EVERY DAY)
He was known as "Train Daddy" which is a cause for hope.
Also,  he comes from England --  where they are proud of their trains.

Just wonder how long he will last, when he runs into Gardner's Cost-Cutting madness.


 

Am I missing something?  What high speed rail is Amtrak developing?  Or are they just talking about the NEC?

Andy

As well as working for a number of mainline Train Operating Companies in GB he was Commissioner of Transport for London between 2020 and 2022, effectively the TfL CEO, delivering the new Elizabeth Line in to service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/23 14:07 by 86235.

IIRC, he left the NYCTA in disgust.   He should replace gardner.  We'll see what happens.   If they expect him to just accept Amtks terrible level of service, He'll bail pretty quickly.

Best we can hope for is that they are staging him to move up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/23 21:39 by pdt.

He's there for what passes for HSR at Amtrak, period. He will not be allowed to do at thing about the dirty Cardinal, Beech Grove's stashed equipment, or Chicago shenanigans (or they'll fire him). 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He's there for what passes for HSR at Amtrak,
> period. He will not be allowed to do at thing
> about the dirty Cardinal, Beech Grove's stashed
> equipment, or Chicago shenanigans (or they'll fire
> him). 

And will be hand-tied to create something that Amtrak has been struggling to do for 50 years. It's study after study with grand plans with no major action or tangible results. Yes, some repairs and critical infrastructure projects are finally getting funded on the NEC, but that's not necessarily tied to noticeable increases in train speed or what's happening with HSR developments "across the pond" or in Asia. New high speed train sets still trying to get deployed. He's got some good train ops experience that could make a difference for Amtrak overall. I would find that more interesting than trying to do the impossible.  

Once he gets hand-tied, he resigns. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He's there for what passes for HSR at Amtrak,
> period. He will not be allowed to do at thing
> about the dirty Cardinal, Beech Grove's stashed
> equipment, or Chicago shenanigans (or they'll fire
> him). 

Why would Andy Byford doing any of those things cause him to be fired?

This  giy  is  as  good  as  it  gets!! I  would  rather  he  be  VP Operations!!

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > He's there for what passes for HSR at Amtrak,
> > period. He will not be allowed to do at thing
> > about the dirty Cardinal, Beech Grove's stashed
> > equipment, or Chicago shenanigans (or they'll
> fire
> > him). 
>
> Why would Andy Byford doing any of those things
> cause him to be fired?

Because that;s not his job, and running dirty trains and stashing equipment at Beech Grove is part of Gardner's agenda of degrading the LD network. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Because that;s not his job, and running dirty
> trains and stashing equipment at Beech Grove is
> part of Gardner's agenda of degrading the LD
> network. 

Although I do not think Amtrak, including its long-distance trains, is as good as it could be and should be, I do not buy into what you are describing as Gardner's "agenda." 

AndyBrown Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Am I missing something?  What high speed rail is
> Amtrak developing?  Or are they just talking
> about the NEC?
>
> Andy

According to the article, that info was based on an "internal memo."

First step is to see how Byford reorganizes the ranks below him. We got enough eyes and ears on Amtrak to get reliable rumors, so we'll know better what we're missing after that.

If he's just there to share ideas, better role for him would be a consultant, not an Executive VP with all the drama that goes with it.

Mr. Byford also ran the Toronto Transit Commission, as Chief General Manager and later CEO,  for five years from 2012.

Could this be a hopeful sign? Quite possibly. There have been numerous calls on this forum for someone with solid railroad experience to join Amtrak in a senior management position. 

So now we have someone like that. Not only with railroad experience, but considerable passenger rail experience, both in transit, commuter rail, and longer-distance intercity passenger rail, joining Amtrak's executive ranks. But as is usual for this forum and its regular choir of boo-birds, his appointment is met with skepticism and criticism.

It just never ends. Many of you won't even give him nor Amtrak a chance to make good on what is quite possibly a positive development. No patience to let him and Amtrak prove themselves. Instead there's just more unprovable, conspiratorial, negative criticism and condemnation. It's just sickening. Truly, no good deed goes unpunished on this forum - or is even given a chance.

MC

You don't understand. None of us are criticizing Byford at all. He is there to further HSR, not clean up all that is wrong at Amtrak. And to whatever extent his hands are poltically tied either by management or Congress, he'll quit. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You don't understand. None of us are criticizing
> Byford at all. He is there to further HSR, not
> clean up all that is wrong at Amtrak. And to
> whatever extent his hands are politically tied
> either by management or Congress, he'll quit. 

No, I do understand. I understand full well that his portfolio is to further HSR, and not to "clean up all that is wrong at Amtrak". Amtrak has the right as his employer to ask him to do a specific job - work on High Speed Rail (which I would presume to be focused on the NEC, at least initially).  And by the same token he has the right to agree to that job - as does anyone - because it fits or doesn't fit his career goals and interests. 

But in that we should give him and Amtrak and Congress and the politicians a chance. Don't prejudge that he's going to have his hands tied, either within Amtrak or politically with Congress. Or that if he runs into opposition that he is almost automatically going to up and quit. From what I can read about him, he can be a pretty persuasive guy. And he has a solid track record. That can carry a lot of weight, particularly when it's in combination with a positive, forward-looking, persuasive attitude.

It's not uncommon at all for successful senior managers to move from job to job as they climb the ladder of "progressively greater responsibilities", to use the boilerplate phrase of many recruitment ads. Indeed in many organizations, it's expected and encouraged. Just because he did that in the past should not cast any negative aspersions on his new role at Amtrak. It's as common as water once people reach a certain level. And as for quitting the New York job because of tensions with Cuomo, that bothers me not at all. Looking at New York politics from my Midwestern perch (I'm a subscriber to the New York Times, and regularly read the NY political news there), Cuomo seemed to be an endless, egotistical meddler in so many areas of government. If Byford didn't want to put up with that, and wanted a job where he would be given the tasks to do and then allowed to do them (of course with appropriate oversight), I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are tons of people in many endeavors and in executive ranks who would feel precisely the same way relative to their own jobs and their bosses.

Give Byford and Amtrak a chance. Don't place an immediate negative cast on it, and presume that it's not going to work out. And maybe, just maybe, that may have the effect of opening Amtrak up to some better resolution of issues in other areas. If only because they get some more breathing room to focus there a bit more because they can be comfortable knowing that the HSR portfolio is in capable hands. The NEC has its issues, too. Again, such a process of being able to focus more on other areas because one set of responsibilities is in capable hands is not at all uncommon in business.

Give this appointment a chance.

MC



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/23 08:04 by ironmtn.

ironmtn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But in that we should give him and Amtrak and
> Congress and the politicians a chance.

That's false optimism. Hope is a drug that's being sold to the unsuspecting public. I think joemvcnj is simply being realistic. You probably wouldn't want me to go "uncryptic" and unleash even more cynicism. :-)

There are those who haven't forgotten what happened to David Gunn, Amtrak President with similar qualifications to Andy Byford. Byford's intolerance for petty politics (Cuomo) IS relevant. There are scenarios that could help Amtrak as an organization, not just prop up the NEC and help Gardner, but it's too early to speculate on that.

There are crises (economic and political) that are waiting to unfold that can derail any hope for HSR or Amtrak. It seems irrelevant, but there are enough people here on TO who understand, where political whims can make Amtrak an unjustified target - Reagan era politics, for example. Fortunately for Amtrak, William Graham Clayor, Jr., was Amtrak President around that time (1982-1993) so there's room for real hope (not peddled by political incompetents and crazies).
 

Amtrak has just made its most rail passenger qualified senior management hire in a very long time.

Andy Byford really knows his stuff--although like David Gunn does not easily tolerate fools. It will be fascinating to see if Amtrak's management culture of what I consider "institutionalized pessimism" gives him any real freedom to act. We know what happened to Gunn when he wouldn't toe the party line on the NEC and the national network and showed a willingness to endure a potential strike. Like Byford with Andrew Cuomo he was gone too soon. Way too soon given what followed!

While I could hope for an equally qualified hire for the revitalization of the National Network, emerging corridors will and must come now with the funding and commitments made in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). If done right these new Amtrak routes will network with the long-hauls. Indeed several opportunities suggested in the "Amtrak Connects" proposal could be used to tie together shorter routes such as Chicago-Louisville and Nashville-Atlanta-Savannah to create true new long haul services (in this case Chicago-Nashville-Atlanta-Savannah-Florida) with the added corridor trains as the catalyst.

But that the Coscia/Gardner team hired Byford speaks well of their commitment to do more to grow their business.

How they define HSR (high speed rail) may prove the most significant test here. There is vastly more likelihood of new 110mph operations in the USA than of true 188mph TGV style HSR. This interim level of service needs to be properly built and sold as the real improvement it is.

It will also be fascinating to see what the first Amtrak HSR project other than the core NEC turns out to be. Virginia/North Carolina? Actual train operation on the California starter HSR Line? Something like Buffalo-Albany that is truthfully Higher Speed Rail? Dallas--Houston as another Higher Speed route if the Texas Central HSR private project can't proceed. This could go on the existing alignments (much upgraded) of the BNSF (former Rock Island, Ft Worth and Denver route) or via the UP (former SP line) to avoid the Nimby hysteria that appears to have exhausted the TC projects' financial reserves just as they seemed to have surmounted their final court challenges.

Time will tell. Wow!

 

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ironmtn Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > But in that we should give him and Amtrak and
> > Congress and the politicians a chance.
>
> That's false optimism. Hope is a drug that's being
> sold to the unsuspecting public. I think joemvcnj
> is simply being realistic. You probably wouldn't
> want me to go "uncryptic" and unleash even more
> cynicism. :-)

You can go as "uncryptic" as you want. Or "unacerbic" as you wish. I think you might be mixing me up with someone else for being concerned about "cryptic". I once stated you were "acerbic." I meant that then and still do as a large compliment - I appreciate that kind of perspective. In any case, I won't be offended by either "cryptic" or "acerbic" remarks.

That said, I also don't agree with you on my remarks as being "false optimism". I deal with things overall rather realistically and pragmatically, and there are plenty of reasons with Amtrak to have suspicions about motives. I've said before that I don't trust Stephen Gardner (and Anthony Coscia for that matter) beyond the ends of my fingertips. With them, it's a Reaganesque "trust but verify" every step of the way.  But I also believe strongly in constructive action, and using whatever tools are available to shape the future - against a realistic evaluation of the here and now. And with regard to Amtrak, that means that I do not throw in the towel and revert to negative conspiracies about Amtrak's real motives. Nor to hopelessness about what Andy Byford can accomplish before he's even spent one day on the job.

I think his appointment can be very positive. But we shall see how it really works out. I for one am willing to take a wait-and-see approach. And no drugs were taken to do that.

MC