Boardman, who died at age 70 on March 5 while vacationing with family, was a lightning rod for criticism about Amtrak — often in pieces authored by former longtime Trains columnist Don Phillips.
Boardman served the railroad eight years between 2008 and 2016 and as Federal Railroad Administration administrator for another three years prior.
Earlier this year, Trains‘ Passenger Columnist Bob Johnston reflected that, “During his time as CEO, Boardman initiated equipment purchases of 70 Siemens ACS-64 electric locomotives for the Northeast Corridor; 130 Viewliner II baggage, baggage dorm, sleeping, and dining cars … ; and 28 Alstom Avelia Liberty electric trainsets that are to replace Northeast Corridor Acela Expresses beginning in 2021.
“Boardman championed Amtrak’s efforts to encourage state and local community grant applications to help pay for needed infrastructure improvements along the Southwest Chief’s route. Although he was criticized for not acting on efficiency and mobility improvement recommendations to other long-distance routes, such as converting the Sunset Limited and Cardinal to daily operation, Boardman told Trains in an interview … that there was no way he could convince Amtrak’s board at the time to find and spend the necessary money on the national network.
“Boardman had been outspoken about the direction current Amtrak management was taking the company since his departure in September 2016. In retirement, he became sharply critical of his successors’ jettisoning of institutional knowledge with management buyouts, food service downgrades, and attempts to weaken the performance of long-distance trains.”
Boardman is also rumored to have been important for Amtrak’s support of a Toys For Tots Train in Boardman’s beloved Upstate New York. Amtrak dropped the train in 2018 amid policy changes and there was no train in 2019.
“He cared deeply about serving the American public, ensuring rail access throughout the nation’s heartland,” American Short Line and Regional Rail Road Association President Chuck Baker said in March about Boardman. “He was that rare individual who cared more about finding a solution to a problem than taking credit for a solution and our industry benefitted greatly from that way of doing business.”
— Bob Johnston contributed to this report.
While Joe was in office I thought he was a lunatic. In retirement it came out he was an intelligent and a decent guy who I felt I could look up to. RIP in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Speaking of deaths, we read this week of the passing of Baba Ram Dass, the American spiritual leader (in the Hindu tradition) from the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s. What does Ram Dass have to do with railroading? A lot, actually, Born Richard Alpert, Ram Dass was the son of George Alpert. George Alpert was the president of the New Haven Railroad in my formative years in New Haven suburban territory, and the man who was at the throttle when the railroad entered its terminal illness. Ram Dass talked about how painful the New Haven’s collapse was for his father.
Too bad TRAINS almost completely dwelled on Boardman’s tenure at Amtrak. While administrator at the FRA, he oversaw the rejection of the loan for the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern to build into the Powder River Basin. Mr. Boardman saw to it that the American taxpayers would not be saddled with this $2.5 billion boondoggle that the DM&E no way no how could have paid back, and would have been exacerbated all the more by the drop in coal demand starting with the great recession of 2008. Railfans and the charlatan leading the DM&E bemoaned the loan rejection blaming mostly the governor of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic, but the FRA under Boardman squelched the project for the real reason: There was zero economic justification.