Passenger Trains > Amtrak Board Meeting

This was such a bummer of a meeting.  Amtrak asked people to submit question and there was time to go through them but they did not read any question submitted nor was there anyone in the audience asking questions.

In a nutshell (embarrassing) Roger Harris the President of Amtrak gave a video presentation of the new Acela and a very nice list of amenities and services that will be on this brand new train.  But at the end of his presentation he said we have accepted delivery of the first 5 train-sets and we hope to announce the launch of these sometime in the future.  NO DATE, NO NOTHING.  What a joke and what a letdown after hearing about this new train.

No update on LD equipment procurement, many updates on tunnel and bridge replacements from someone who could not speak very well.  No mention when more Airo train-sets will be coming out.  Mentioned the Horizon cars out of service but no mention if any will be returned.

It was mentioned that Customer Satisfaction scores are down in all three business units the NEC, State Trains, and Long Distance Trains.  On time performance was down in all 3 business units and LD was a dismal 54%.

It was mentioned that driving this customer satisfaction score was on-time service issues.  Admitted that Amtrak equipment has broken down 22% more times this year over the previous year.  It was mentioned that the current Acela fleet is running but it's a very big challenge keeping these train-sets working and the maintenance people cannot wait for the new Acela to arrive.

Revenue is up and ridership it up.  They especially mentioned that revenue and ridership for the Floridian is up over projections but did not say by how much

A very disappointing 90 minutes



East River Tunnel has 2 out of 4 tubes down and is ahead of schedule.  Mentioned the B&P Tunnel construction is having budgetary challenges.

All in all it was a complete waste of time to listen to this call.  I hope RTA or NARP will have something to say about this meeting.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/25 13:57 by amtrakbill.

Thanks for this summary of the meeting.  I'm happy to hear the East River tunnels project in NYC is ahead of schedule.  There's a lot riding on that project, along with the related Gateway project on the Hudson River side.

VP Operations and Service Delivery Williams also mentioned a 60% increase in engine failures - I think was referring only to Legacy Acela.
He mentioned thst CSX had improved operation of the Auto Train this month vs June, and that NS has improved on time performance of
the Amtraks it hosts by 29% YTD.  He spoke of equipment challenges whereby Club Dinettes have substituted for Venture Cafes (I assume
this is on Midwest corridor trains).
President Harris said said the new Acela trainsets will have assigned seating, there will be 5-G enabled WiFi at each seat, the cafe will have food in a glass display
case that can be heated in Turbo Chef ovens, and first class passengers will get complimentary meals catered by Steven Star Restaurants.
Andy

twropr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> VP Operations and Service Delivery Williams also
> mentioned a 60% increase in engine failures - I
> think was referring only to Legacy Acela.
> He mentioned thst CSX had improved operation of
> the Auto Train this month vs June, and that NS has
> improved on time performance of
> the Amtraks it hosts by 29% YTD.  He spoke of
> equipment challenges whereby Club Dinettes have
> substituted for Venture Cafes (I assume
> this is on Midwest corridor trains).
> President Harris said said the new Acela
> trainsets will have assigned seating, there will
> be 5-G enabled WiFi at each seat, the cafe will
> have food in a glass display
> case that can be heated in Turbo Chef ovens, and
> first class passengers will get complimentary
> meals catered by Steven Star Restaurants.
> Andy

They can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk after five years!!!!

So far Amtrak has been able to weather the storm regarding engine failures, cancelled trains, dirty trains etc.  Revenue and ridership are still up.  But the canary in the coal mine could be the lower CSI scores.  Maybe it is just timekeeping...I don't know, but once ridership and revenue plateau or begin to fall...that will be hard to spin.  People are still riding Amtrak, myself included.  NEC trains are still ok...assuming they are not cancelled.  LD trains, you never know what is going to happen.  From crews to dirty cars to engine failures.  It's a crap shoot.  And when you pay the sleeping car prices and get what you get (see the Noel Phillips Floridian review for example)...it can be hard to return.  I will ride Amtrak LD in sleeper, but will not recommend it to friends or family.

Curious to see how sleeping car revenue and ridership is holding up compared to last year, and also on a route by route basis.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/25 16:42 by fulham.

I'm not sure where they're getting a meaningful increase in capacity when 70 Horizon cars just got pulled from the system.  The number of cars put back in over the past two years can't be much greater than that. I was hoping to hear more also.

Auto-Train service / on time status has definitely improved in the last few weeks

NPRocky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not sure where they're getting a meaningful
> increase in capacity when 70 Horizon cars just got
> pulled from the system.  The number of cars put
> back in over the past two years can't be much
> greater than that. I was hoping to hear more also.

A little off topic about the Horizon cars, EXO has 24 of them, they call them the 700's, retired in 2022, built in 1989.

I am in Montreal right now, just took an EXO ride on the Vandreuil line. Chatted with the "conductor" (whatever EXO and Amstom calls them). He said Alstom is selling the cars to Mexico. I told him Amtrak's version were structurally condemned (he didn't know). Mystery to me is if Montreal's winters are even more miserable than Chicago's and with the rock salt, albeit with lower mileage, how come theirs are OK ?

Posted from Android

Doesn't surprise me with the LD Pocurment not official, probably gonna hear the SOS on that sector next year, it's great the tunnels are ahead of schedule but come on, take care of equipment!

Posted from Android

amtrakbill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This was such a bummer of a meeting.  Amtrak
> asked people to submit question and there was time
> to go through them but they did not read any
> question submitted nor was there anyone in the
> audience asking questions.
>
> In a nutshell (embarrassing) Roger Harris the
> President of Amtrak gave a video presentation of
> the new Acela and a very nice list of amenities
> and services that will be on this brand new train.
>  But at the end of his presentation he said we
> have accepted delivery of the first 5 train-sets
> and we hope to announce the launch of these
> sometime in the future.  NO DATE, NO NOTHING.
>  What a joke and what a letdown after hearing
> about this new train.
>
> No update on LD equipment procurement, many
> updates on tunnel and bridge replacements from
> someone who could not speak very well.  No
> mention when more Airo train-sets will be coming
> out.  Mentioned the Horizon cars out of service
> but no mention if any will be returned.
>
> It was mentioned that Customer Satisfaction scores
> are down in all three business units the NEC,
> State Trains, and Long Distance Trains.  On time
> performance was down in all 3 business units and
> LD was a dismal 54%.
>
> It was mentioned that driving this customer
> satisfaction score was on-time service issues.
>  Admitted that Amtrak equipment has broken down
> 22% more times this year over the previous year.
>  It was mentioned that the current Acela fleet is
> running but it's a very big challenge keeping
> these train-sets working and the maintenance
> people cannot wait for the new Acela to arrive.
>
> Revenue is up and ridership it up.  They
> especially mentioned that revenue and ridership
> for the Floridian is up over projections but did
> not say by how much
>
> A very disappointing 90 minutes
>
>
>
> East River Tunnel has 2 out of 4 tubes down and is
> ahead of schedule.  Mentioned the B&P Tunnel
> construction is having budgetary challenges.
>
> All in all it was a complete waste of time to
> listen to this call.  I hope RTA or NARP will
> have something to say about this meeting.  

The whole company is just a sad mess. Timekeeping is abysmal. Funny he mentioned the Floridian. I was looking and the average arrival time in Miami over the past two months has been well over two hours late. That’s absolutely atrocious. Obviously this schedule cannot be regularly met. A company that cared about their customers would adjust the schedule to reflect reality. But Amtrak just runs the damn thing day after day pretending like everything is OK and pissing off customers left and right. Not to mention giving them filthy windows they can barely see out of. Which brings us to the Chicago car wash debacle that apparently they did not bother to mention. Apparently it is still not even functional according to insiders. That alone should result in several people being fired. 22% higher equipment breakdown rate is shameful as well. I wonder how much the Charger fiasco is contributing to this. I’ve seen regular reports of western trains having no dining service due to issues with the car being unusable due to refrigeration or water issues, etc. The lounge car was missing on the California Zephyr in the past week. The city of New Orleans left Chicago late because they had to steal the equipment from the Southwest Chief set, because there were so many bad order cars on the city of New Orleans set. The whole company is being held together with bailing wire and bubblegum. Honestly, I don’t think it’s been this bad since the dark days of the 1970s when everything was falling apart. And does anybody have faith that the new Acela won’t be plagued with problems if and when they ever get running? And complete silence regarding the Horizon situation is also ridiculous. That’s a pretty heavy chunk of their fleet sitting around unusable, and they should certainly be giving out some information about what the prognosis is for them. Just shamefully incompetent and indifferent management.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/25 20:04 by alan2955.

My take is that this whole "board meeting" is no different than an unpopular politician having a press conference.   Make and statement and walk out. No questions, no nothing. 


Like a lot of govt employees, their objective is to make it to retirement.  
The problem is that if they really worked hard and turned amtrak around, the govt really wouldnt care.  There is no incentive to really do a super job.
The govt doesnt reward incentive.   The only incentive is personal pride, and none of the board guys have that.  Running amtk, or NOAA, or NASA, or the post office, or any govt agency....its all the same to them.  Do what congress wants, and thats it.   And right now with all the turmoil in DC, no one cares about amtk.  Not unless they ride the train, or a family member does. Thats it. 

I mailed a package from CA to Nebraska 2 weeks ago.  it still hasnt gotten there.  

IMHO, RPA is all we got for a lobbying effort, and they seem to be out to lunch.  Lobbying i think is the best way to go.  That and writing letters.

Regardless of your politics, the uncertainty of what this administration is going to do tomorrow, economically or otherwise, has got ppl on edge, and its not helping anything.  I run a small business, and i can see ppls spending habits 1st hand.  The tariff nonsense and uncertainty is going to have its toll.    The stock market is doing OK bc the big boys are happy about rolling back EPA standards...which btw, im  not  totally against, if its done in a careful and sensible manner.    Move fast, be reckless and break things is motto for teenage boys, not a receipe for running a government.
My .02.   Your mileage may vary.   

 

No, just 1 of 4 East River tubes are out of service. Line 2 is closed now for 15 months. Then Line 1 for the next 15 months. There would be no way east from track 5 thru 13 if both were closed.

Posted from Android

pdt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My take is that this whole "board meeting" is no
> different than an unpopular politician having a
> press conference.   Make and statement and walk
> out. No questions, no nothing. 
>
> Like a lot of govt employees, their objective is
> to make it to retirement.  
> The problem is that if they really worked hard and
> turned amtrak around, the govt really wouldnt
> care.  There is no incentive to really do a super job.

This is everything you need to know right here.

With the vast numbers of good career federal employees being dismissed without a second thought, it looks like we are entering a "golden age" for TO posters!

My reaction to the purportedly “Open” Amtrak Board session on July 31 was not so positive as that in TrainsPRO (the re-branded Newswire). The fact that during the meeting the slides improperly displayed and the Closed Captions could not be suppressed and were constantly inaccurate was bad enough–but–as Bob Johnston correctly pointed out–not a single Board member had anything to say–not a question, comment or suggestion.

We know this wasn’t the “real” meeting, as they chose a new CFO/Chief Financial Officer yesterday during a presumably “closed” part of the meeting.

We heard that the East River Tunnel work is apparently moving ahead of schedule and if I caught it right through the mumbled presentation, under budget. Great news, but perhaps someone might have asked if that meant we might expect to see the service go back to normal on the Empire Corridor and especially for the ADIRONDACK and MAPLE LEAF trains. That’s an example of an ideal question some Board member might have asked.

We also heard how well the FLORIDIAN was apparently performing, since Amtrak added a third sleeper and (off and on) more coach capacity. But the train is routinely 3-5 hours late. Could someone have posed the question of how Amtrak intends to address that?

I posted the notes below on assorted Amtrak FB forums yesterday.

***********

The July 31st “open” Amtrak Board meeting, set to run from 1230PM to 200PM Eastern Time, just concluded at 115PM. As you might imagine from the shortness of the time actually used, Amtrak could easily have permitted pubic input, and questions, but did not do so. Not a single Board member question or comment took place at any point in the session. Sigh.

No decisions, obviously, were reached, as the only participation was by Amtrak senior staff reporting back on what they were working on and Year to Date (YTD) results. There at least the overall impression was that Amtrak is ahead of FY24 levels of ridership and ticket revenue. One persistent problem, at least on my MAC computer, was that the bottom of every slide was cut off. Adjusting the display did not help. Sigh.

The one bit of real news was at the very end of the session, when Amtrak President Roger Harris reported that Amtrak was in the process of taking delivery for actual scheduled operation of its first five Next Gen ACELA train-sets. Great news, but the obvious question of when that service might actually begin remains “soon”–eg. they still don’t know. Sigh.

Throughout the presentation was confusing to follow. The closed captioning would not clear from the screen and was often inaccurate, based on the projected slides–ranging from mis-stating ridership to the mildly funny–“panoramic windows” on the new ACELAS translating to “rammic” on the transcript. Hopefully these errors will be fixed before the minutes are released. Sigh.

Overall this was better characterized as a Press Conference without questions than a true decision-making Board Meeting. No Board discussions and no questions rendered the “open” aspect very limited indeed. Deepest sigh! 

Railvt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My reaction to the purportedly “Open” Amtrak
> Board session on July 31 was not so positive as
> that in TrainsPRO (the re-branded Newswire). The
> fact that during the meeting the slides improperly
> displayed and the Closed Captions could not be
> suppressed and were constantly inaccurate was bad
> enough–but–as Bob Johnston correctly pointed
> out–not a single Board member had anything to
> say–not a question, comment or suggestion.
>
> We know this wasn’t the “real” meeting, as
> they chose a new CFO/Chief Financial Officer
> yesterday during a presumably “closed” part of
> the meeting.
>
> We heard that the East River Tunnel work is
> apparently moving ahead of schedule and if I
> caught it right through the mumbled presentation,
> under budget. Great news, but perhaps someone
> might have asked if that meant we might expect to
> see the service go back to normal on the Empire
> Corridor and especially for the ADIRONDACK and
> MAPLE LEAF trains. That’s an example of an ideal
> question some Board member might have asked.
>
> We also heard how well the FLORIDIAN was
> apparently performing, since Amtrak added a third
> sleeper and (off and on) more coach capacity. But
> the train is routinely 3-5 hours late. Could
> someone have posed the question of how Amtrak
> intends to address that?
>
> I posted the notes below on assorted Amtrak FB
> forums yesterday.
>
> ***********
>
> The July 31st “open” Amtrak Board meeting, set
> to run from 1230PM to 200PM Eastern Time, just
> concluded at 115PM. As you might imagine from the
> shortness of the time actually used, Amtrak could
> easily have permitted pubic input, and questions,
> but did not do so. Not a single Board member
> question or comment took place at any point in the
> session. Sigh.
>
> No decisions, obviously, were reached, as the only
> participation was by Amtrak senior staff reporting
> back on what they were working on and Year to Date
> (YTD) results. There at least the overall
> impression was that Amtrak is ahead of FY24 levels
> of ridership and ticket revenue. One persistent
> problem, at least on my MAC computer, was that the
> bottom of every slide was cut off. Adjusting the
> display did not help. Sigh.
>
> The one bit of real news was at the very end of
> the session, when Amtrak President Roger Harris
> reported that Amtrak was in the process of taking
> delivery for actual scheduled operation of its
> first five Next Gen ACELA train-sets. Great news,
> but the obvious question of when that service
> might actually begin remains “soon”–eg. they
> still don’t know. Sigh.
>
> Throughout the presentation was confusing to
> follow. The closed captioning would not clear from
> the screen and was often inaccurate, based on the
> projected slides–ranging from mis-stating
> ridership to the mildly funny–“panoramic
> windows” on the new ACELAS translating to
> “rammic” on the transcript. Hopefully these
> errors will be fixed before the minutes are
> released. Sigh.
>
> Overall this was better characterized as a Press
> Conference without questions than a true
> decision-making Board Meeting. No Board
> discussions and no questions rendered the
> “open” aspect very limited indeed. Deepest
> sigh! 

They have to hold an "open" BOD meeting but they don't have to actually say anything. They just gotta hold the meeting and Amtrak has met that obligation. Why would you expect anything different?

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> They have to hold an "open" BOD meeting but they
> don't have to actually say anything. They just
> gotta hold the meeting and Amtrak has met that
> obligation. Why would you expect anything
> different?

Many corporate "annual meetings" work the same way. You welcome the new members, vote on the auditor, pass the compensation resolution, hear any pesky share owner resolutions before they are voted down, and resign in time for a very nice lunch.

Great to hear that the East River tunnel project is moving ahead of schedule. Assuming consistant proper maintenance can be done in a timely manner, the sooner the better. This is not only for Amtrak trains but plenty of NJT and LIRR trains use those tunnels. It sounds like in 2029, MNR will be joining those three other railroads for usage through those East River tunnels. I hope that the Hudson River Tunnel project will finish earlier than the next date projected. That project should have happened decades ago. 

As for the Acela II sets, we just have to continue to be patient. It sounds like we will begin to see them phased into service before Labor Day weekend. I am waiting for them to enter revenue service just like everybody else. The Acela II sets have taken way too long to enter service. The original Acela sets definately have been done for a couple of years now-their reliability isn't getting any better. I have plans to take Acela from Newark Penn Station to Providence on the Friday before Columbus Day and then return PVD-NWK Penn on Columbus Day itself. 

I have a feeling that the Horizon cars will never return to service and it really blows. Amtrak is certainly in a capacity crunch right now and the company needs every bit of equipment available. The Ex-Metroliner Cab Cars are having mechanical issues too and their retirement can happen at any moment. It's great that the Airos on the Cascades will enter service in 2026 and hopefully many of the Amtrak Cascades Airos can enter service at the same time although that might not happen. Looks like 2027 for those of us who live in the Northeast and depend on Amtrak routes in the Northeast plus the extensions of the Northeast Regionals, Carolinian, and Palmetto-the Airos probably will begin to enter revenue service starting in 2027. It's not going to be a quick process though getting all of them accepted into revenue service at once. It sounds like by the early 2030s, all of the Airos will be in revenue service.