Passenger Trains > Amtrak management layoff confirm

Just got an email from a part of Amtrak most people don't know about - the guys busily selling and auctioning off the stuff they don't need anymore.  One of the senior guys (I won't put his name up, but he's been around forever) put out an email blast he'd been laid off.  Bye.

This is kinda dumb, because the GAO did a rather withering audit of Amtrak saying they had 'way excess' inventory of parts and materials they couldn't use.   Like what?  Parts going back to the Heritage car era. Wheels, couplers, light bulbs.... you name it.   And also, equipment that's worn out and squirreled away in all corners of the universe like broken down vehicles.... again, you name it.    So apparently getting some cash out of that is no longer 'efficient' but laying off the people that dispose of it is.

"As of September 2023, the company held more than $49 million in surplus and obsolete MoE inventory, according to a company report. This includes inventory that exceeds historical or forecasted demand and inventory that no longer has a practical or functional use. For example, as of September 2023, the company reported it had approximately $2 million in obsolete MoE inventory for its Heritage fleet, which it acquired from other railroads when it began operating in 1971 and is no longer in revenue service." 

https://amtrakoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/OIG-A-2024-004%20Inventory.pdf

It's been SOP for years that they have  bid this stuff out, I get multiple notices a week and pass them on if they are useful to anyone I know.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/25 10:18 by randgust.

Reading that report is very informative. Robbing parts off other cars/locomotives because there aren't any in the storehouse has been SOP for decades. With the multitudes of management personnel Amtrak has, one would think someone, anyone, would have a handle on this situation. Probably need to create a new position for it. And a supervisor to supervise it, and so on. It's the Amtrak way.

OK, so rather than just call up the junkyard they have an organized methodology of disposing of stuff.  It's auctioned off to anybody that gets on an email list, including me.  You can't just give it away, or do inside deals, either (which trust me, really used to happen with a wink and a nod).   Sorta like military surplus.
I've seen old baggage wagons, hundreds of yards of obsolete carpet, junk vehicles in all kinds of condition, unique wheels to stuff they no longer own, its been boggling.  And some of this stuff is really valuable to heritage railroads and museums, it shouldn't just be junk.  I'd just think that keeping the part of the system that is actually responding to the GAO report and harvests cash would be some kind of priority.  Nope.

They used to sell surplus stuff on eBay under the name "amtrakofficial".

But I haven't seen anything put up for sale there in a while now.

There was a guy working in Amtrak MOW at Adams yard in NJ who tried to help. He wanted nearly empty parts inventory shelves.

He resold dozens of new chain saws, power tools, spools of copper wire, etc. And ordered more so he could sell those, too.

Took years for anyone to notice how much new stuff was going to Adams...

Posted from Android

In the corporate finance world, capital inventory is poison. If it is not going to be used in a year or so, sell it, trash it, just get it off the books. That was maybe not as important when money was free, but with today’s interest rates and carrying charges, the finance people will be all over anyone holding inventory.

A smaller government agency I know and may or may not being an employee of has over a dozen older vehicles that need to be disposed of.  These vehicles would make fairly good money at auction.  In fact people stop by the vehicle maintenance part of this agency asking about surplus vehicles they would love to buy.  Many of these date back to 1980s.  But the agency can't sell them.  The agency either can't find the titles for them.  Or when they are found (or duplicate titles requested) they have liens on them.  Most for banks long ago merged, dissolved or simply gone.  Even when a the successor bank is found, they want proof the lien was settled.  Imagine trying to find 40 year old bank records for an agency that wasn't very good on paperwork back then.  So the vehicles sit, because no one has the hours and hours needed to solve these issues.

"It's all taxpayer money, there's plenty more where that came from."  -Bureaucrat
 

SCAX3401 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A smaller government agency I know and may or may
> not being an employee of has over a dozen older
> vehicles that need to be disposed of.  These
> vehicles would make fairly good money at
> auction.  In fact people stop by the vehicle
> maintenance part of this agency asking about
> surplus vehicles they would love to buy.  Many of
> these date back to 1980s.  But the agency can't
> sell them.  The agency either can't find the
> titles for them.  Or when they are found (or
> duplicate titles requested) they have liens on
> them.  Most for banks long ago merged, dissolved
> or simply gone.  Even when a the successor bank
> is found, they want proof the lien was settled. 
> Imagine trying to find 40 year old bank records
> for an agency that wasn't very good on paperwork
> back then.  So the vehicles sit, because no one
> has the hours and hours needed to solve these
> issues.

The time costs in properly disposing of excess equipment is non-trivial and because Amtrak is public sector, just scrapping things like a private actor might, can land them in trouble as well. The costs of holding the inventory is likely very small so they can afford to be choosy about disposition as opposed to having a fire sale where they just get scrap value and a ton of political heat. Also "$49 million" is a paper value, not necessarily what they can get in cash if they sold everything, everywhere all at once.   

One method that good companies use to get rid of the folks they do not want is broad layoffs.  Then you refill the positions with the folks you want.  I do not know that is what is happening at Amtrak, but I suspect some of it is just this--get rid of dead wood and replace them with competent folks.  

I am not saying that the origianl poster's contact is incompetent.  He/she may have simply been caught up in a purge.  That is not right, but it can happen.

Until recently, you had to be careful in broad layoffs / corporate buyouts so that the resulting population continues to qualify under various federal or state diversity / government contractor rules.

If you're using additional pension credits as an incentive ("we'll add five years of age and five years of service to your pension calc") there are even more elements you need to balance.  IBM found that out the hard $$$ way.

I saw a posting from one of the unfortunate people to be laid off. She had DEI responsibilities at Amtrak.

No surprise there

Posted from iPhone

Posters contact list (including me) was comprised of other railroads, rebuild shops, museums, salvage yards, etc.   Seems to me at one point there were literally pallets of brand new EMD wheels for E-units put up.  That's the kind of wierd thing they were finding buyers for.

And the 'reply all' function back form the notification was getting out of hand with so many responses -   so many people responded positively to working with them to handle the surplus and liquidation sales, and wishing them the best.   So that's a clue here.

At one time I was working as a contractor for Amtrak, back in the 90's, it was fun then.   And as I've posted elsewhere, I met both the finest and worst there with little clue on consistency as an organization.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "It's all taxpayer money, there's plenty more
> where that came from."  -Bureaucrat
>  

Nothing to add except the sound of your voice…….as usual.