On CNBC yesterday Jim Cramer went on a rant about why bank nationalization is a bad idea. Executive summary: “The government can’t run anything!” Example A: “Look at Amtrak!”
Poor Amtrak. So many haters. If new president Joseph Boardman is to be believed though, the much-abused national rail company isn’t going to take this “hapless bureaucracy” rap sitting down (nodding off, in fact) anymore.
But before he changes any minds, Boardman wants you know that all that stuff is true. In a revealing new story from Trains Newswire, Boardman describes Amtrak as being “in worse shape than he thought” and full of hopeless clock-watchers. But he’s promising that change is on the way. Some key points from the piece:
>> Boardman sees a lot of burned out bureaucrats at Amtrak. He refers to them as “people who don’t believe.”
>> He’s planning to go on a firing spree. “Boardman says [any] Amtrak managers… who cannot make the transition from a survival mode to a growth mode will have to find another job.”
>> The previous management, despite the fact that traffic was up 12 percent last year, didn’t order any regular passenger cars as part of their five year plan. For some reason they just asked for odds and ends like “baggage dormitory cars.”
>> That five-year plan was, for some reason, “secret.”
>> Despite being a secret this five year plan also was “a joke” at Amtrak headquarters. (Only among the cynical burned out types or did “growth mode” people laugh too?)
>> This lack of passenger cars leaves Amtrak in “horrible” shape for America’s new golden era of passenger rail, according to Boardman.
>> Everybody loves Boardman — congressman and railroad conductors alike. The former group digs him so much they (might possibly) want to give him more money since Amtrak got kind of stiffed in the stimulus; the latter group threw union support behind him after a jocular hang out session at Union Station on Thanksgiving day.
>> He has put in a request for $1 billion in government loans to buy electric locomotives. Apparently, “electric motive power is in such poor shape that Washington-New York-Boston trains are sometimes canceled for lack of power.”
>> He likes speak use “train” in his metaphors: “People are going to have to get on the train. We will make some judgments very soon.”
It’s a PR effort, of course — he’s dampening expectations with respect to his own performance and simultaneously trying to reposition Amtrak in the minds of people like Jim Cramer. It’s also a part of the real-world, non-PR challenge of defining the agency’s place in a new political landscape where the expansion of high speed rail is a signature issue for a very popular president.
February 21st, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Great Article!!!!
You have changed my perception of Amtrak (not a good one). Hope the future will be better!
Thanks for posting
February 21st, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Is there any wonder that Amtrak is in “horrible” shape? For the past eight years, we’ve had an administration and a Republican controlled Congress that tried to starve Amtrak to death when they were in a generous mood, and kill the railroad outright when they weren’t. Two years ago, the budget George W. Bush sent to Congress had no money for Amtrak … zero, zip, nada! That would have forced the railroad to shut down within a matter of weeks. A bill passed by the last Congress provided more reasonable funding for Amtrak and, more importantly, committed those funds for a five year period … the first time EVER that Amtrak knew more than a year in advance what its budget would be. Americans WANT passenger trains. Let’s hope the new administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress will give it to us!
April 9th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
[...] tends to be trotted out as case study for poor service, inertia, and bureaucratic unaccountability. Jim Cramer offers Amtrak as Example A of an organization everyone can agree [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
The new president surely hasn’t gotten around to firing any slackers yet, I have been calling his office for TWO days straight. So far the only response I’ve gotten in regards to my complaint is a phone call from “Chris” who works for the gentlemen that was SUPPOSED to call me back in the first place (Jeff “Witkowski” (sp)), but “doesn’t make phone calls” according to Chris. Awesome turn around in service there Mr. Boardman. By the way, I’ve left messages for you as well - no reply!
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Mr. Boardman:
I live in Ct. and take Metro North into NYC frequently. It’s efficient, and affordable. I have family in Philadelphia and Boston and would love to take the acela train but its cost prohibitive. It’s for the elite. Why is that? Why aren’t you able to make use of the acela the standard and affordable for the average person? That’s what we need?
Look forward to hearing. Tony Pagliaro
August 19th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
I have just had one of the most unpleased travel experiences in my 52 years & I have traveled all over the world. I always thought a wonderful way to see the country would be from an Amtrak cross country sleeper car. On Friday afternoon I set out on a cross country trek from Washington DC to San Diego California, by train. The trip from Washington DC to Los Angeles was by Amtrak sleeper car. I was going to spend 3 nights in a sleeper car. One night from DC to Chicago, change trains in Chicago for a two night trip to Los Angeles. Change train in Los Angeles for a 2.5 hour train ride to San Diego.
The trip from DC to Chicago was uneventful. The bulk of the traveling was done at night so I was a little disappointed about not seeing lots of sights. The upper bunk did NOT have a window so my images of falling off to sleep while the landscape passed by were thwarted. We arrived in Chicago Saturday morning with a 6 hour layover before boarding the Southwest Chief for Los Angeles. We settled into the Southwest Chief sleeper car. Before we left the station in Chicago a fowl smell overtook the sleeper cabin. It smelled like sewage. It lingered then passed after about 3 minutes. Soon the train took off and the adventure was underway. Again, soon after leaving the station the smell of sewage appeared again, lingered a few minutes then passed. I assumed it had something to do with the area the train was travelling through. Unfortunately it soon became a pattern every 15 minutes or so the car would be encompass with the smell of sewage. The smell would linger and the pass. The smell was coming from the vents. Yep, the vents were emitting the smell of sewage again and again. It soon became unbearable. We entered the lounge car to get away from the smell. We had paid for an expensive sleeper car, but were unable to use it because the smell of sewage was being vented into the room on a regular basis. Four hours out of Chicago, I saw the conductor passing thought the lounge car and mentioned this problem to him. He said he would get back to me since he had to attend to boarding passengers. One hour passed and I had not heard from the conductor. However I could see him having a conversation with staff in the dinning car. I asked him about the smell. Again he told me he would get back to me. Finally someone told me that no other sleeper or coach seats were available. The problem was that when the sleeper car in front of my sleeper car flushed their toilets the smell was vented into my sleeper car. For 2 nights and 3 days the customers on my sleeper car were bathed in toilet smells coming through the vents. You can imagine the horror of the experience. We passed through many large train stations between Chicago & Los Angeles……….nothing was done. We were told they would take car of it in Los Angeles. How would that benefit us on the train? The train trip ended in Los Angeles. We were told to complain to 1 800 USA Rail. The problem started Saturday and did not end until the train arrived in Los Angeles Monday morning. Customer relations for Amtrak is closed on the weekend. When you called 1 800 USA Rail you are told to call back on Monday. Monday morning 9:00 AM I began calling 1800 USA RAIL. While I could get through to make a reservation, I could NOT get through to customer relations, I was just forwarded to music. I attempted to find someone to complain to in the Los Angeles & San Diego train stations. In both places I was told to call 1 800 USA RAIL. I was told that typically there are so many calls on Monday to customer relations that you can not get through. I have now spent 6 days while on vacation in San Diego attempting to get thought to customer relations on the 1 800 USA RAIL number. I have literally spent hours listening to the music on hold and have yet to be able to speak to anyone at Amtrak’s customer relations about my experience. Not being able to get through to complain about Amtrak on the 1 800 USA Rail is either an insidious plan by Amtrak or a grand omission. Neither is acceptable from Amtrak. However I was able to get through to the Department of Transportation who forwarded me to the Federal Railroad Administration. They told me that while they do not regulate the toilet problem on Amtrak (they get involved in things like derailments) it is the number one Amtrak complaint. Seems my experience is far from unusual. Unless you are a fan of sewage smells, stay far away from Amtrak especially on long haul trips. During my week in San Diego every time I heard a train whistle it brought back smells of the sewer. Fortunately, I am flying back to DC.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I Took a Roundtrip ride from Penn Station up to Niagara Falls Ontario on the #63 Maple Leaf Train. My trip began on August 4th. I checked in at Penn Station, then went over to a Table in the Middle of the Open Area and filled out me and my family’s Customs Paperwork. Then I took my tickets over to a clerk near the Amtrak Waiting Area to wait for our Boarding Call. Because I’m very thorough I continually check back in with the 2 clerks asking again and again what the overhead speakers were saying and if it meant that I should proceed. The answer was always “not yet”, “not ready”, “we’ll let you know”. As the minutes went on, I started to see Amtrak workers scurrying around and putting certain patrons luggage on Hand Trucks. Again I kept checking in with the Amtrak Clerks asking if I was missing something and once again, their reply was “not yet”, “not ready”, “we’ll let you know”. Finally, I decided to leave the Waiting area (which was now 75% empty) only to see a line of over 100 people long so I asked a few of the people on the line which train they were taking and of course it was the same one that I was scheduled to take. Of course, I grew agitated because I knew that the seating was first come first served and I had a family of 4 that would like to sit together. I confronted the same clerks once again but this time I got a different answer. This time it was that they were calling out for us to board but we must not have been paying attention. These 3 workers had gotten VERY defensive and started having a shouting match with me instead of trying to squelch the situation. There was absolutely zero Customer Service skills tended to by these folks. It was appalling. What a negative approach these folks took during the whole situation. Your Management should be ashamed of themselves for allowing these people be the symbol of their Company. Thank god I’m only a New Yorker and not some out of towner that really could’ve passed judgement on the way NYers treat people.
The Rest of the trip went as expected except for the very rude conductor that shot back at my wife when she mentioned to him very nicely that the bathroom was messy. Amtrak really needs to take a look in the mirror and see that there’s a lot they could do to improve with their customer service and in turn their image.
I had some serious issues with the Security but I’d rather leave that off of this public forum and discuss it with Amtrak Directly.
I can tell you right now I was very disappointed with EVERYTHING that was important here and I know that I could never recommend Amtrak to anybody else that might ask me for my feedback.
You folks really need to clean up your act and get with the times to become competitive and streamlined. It’s not only about collecting a Pay check!
November 5th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Laura,
Send a letter to “Ombudsman” at Conde Nast Traveler magazine. They will likely publish an account of your smelly complaint to millions of their readership. I would imagine Amtrak will soon be tripping overthemselves to address your concern.
January 5th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Come on, give Joe a chance. Joe is a proven leader with a long track record of innovation and accomplishment. You can’t expect him to have cleaned up 40+ years of AMTRAK screw-ups in just a few months. Joe knows how to run a transportation organization. His mark will be left on AMTRAK.
January 11th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Dear Mr. Boardman, ( whoever reads this )
It time somebody in Your Office fines a formal civil complaint against the News Medias - for biased reporting, showing favortism to the airlines, and always trashing AMTRAK. AOL reported the Calif. Zephyer being: ” The Train From Hell “- as it was delayed in a snow storm and hit a pick up truck on the rr tracks enroute to CHI . Its obvious that the news services are on the airlines “guest lists” — but the point is, that AMTRAK needs to put this crap to a sliding halt ! A person can kiss his girlfriend at the Newark Airport — and shut the entire place down. A plane can make an emergency landing — and its no big deal. Weather related airport delays and flight cancellations are ‘expected’ as they say: BUT — if AMTRAK screws up and doesn’t give a passenger a clean towel or is late at arrival — All Holy Hell breaks loose from the media reporting the situation — for their sensationalism ! Do Something about this bias attack on AMTRAK. Stop it ! No more talk, talk, talk — its ACTION what is asked for. Hold these news services 100% accountable for their discrimination towards AMTRAK and make em` pay for their stupidity and bias reporting !