WASHINGTON — Amtrak on Thursday announced the launch of “Amtrak Gives Back,” which it calls “a community engagement program focused on being a good neighbor and valuable partner to the communities it serves.”
The company will look to help non-profit organizations in communities served by the passenger operator, “including those that promote diversity and inclusion,” the company said in a press release. Its efforts include engaging with the community to help people understand the scope, impact, and benefits of Amtrak projects, while also accepting community feedback; supporting organizations through its “On Track for Good” program as well as through sponsorships and in-kind donations; and volunteering to lend a helping hand in the community.
“We are guided by our Values – Do the Right Thing, Put Customers First, and Excel Together –all clear expressions of our principles that align with the goals given to us by Congress,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “This program will help us meaningfully engage with communities while building lasting partnerships that benefit the nation.”
More on Amtrak Gives Back is available here.
Lip stick on the pig of poor service to passengers potential and real. An effort to divert attention away from its terrible service to everyone.
Thank you and AMEN Alan.
How about running a train in Ohio that’s not in the middle of the night.
Cincinnati has a tri weekly train at 1:35 am or 3:40am. Useless.
How about giving us back our pax train through Ocala, Florida?
Amtrak needs to focus on running trains. Participating in Toys for Tots or Make A Wish would be fine. Non political , non controversial and at low additional costs. When you start throwing in diversity and inclusion the red flags are flying.
No, Güntürk. A more meaningful gesture would be to use the money the taxpayers are giving them and use it for what it is intended for – running passenger trains.
A railroad that’s heavily subsidized at the state, local and federal level engages in politically-weighted charity.
All this proves is they were given so much money they don’t know what to do with it.
I have a MUCH better idea, Amtrak. Put those taxpayer funds into running the railroad. We have more than enough government agencies wasting taxes, including you.
Yadda, yadda, yadda. Let’s see if Amtrak “gives back” the Toys For Tots Christmas train that they cancelled a few years ago here is upstate New York.
As long as I’m correcting my typo to read “in” New York, let’s speculate on when Amtrak might “give back” the Adirondack.
When I see a Christmas Train on the Sunset or Empire Route then I will believe it.
It seems to me that Amtrak has its hands full just running a railroad. There could certainly be more meaningful gestures of goodwill towards coach passengers especially from conductors and on board service personnel. After witnessing some events I thought it might be time to send Amtrak employees back to “charm school” like Warrington did back in the 90’s. The focus was to treat passengers as “guests”. This would probably be a good focus for Amtrak going forward.
Just for fun I went to Trip Advisor and entered “Amtrak” into the search box. A number of options appeared, and I picked one at random to see what real people were saying about Amtrak. It seemed there were two sited most frequently. One was late trains that we are all aware of but there was another that we seldom see mentioned. And that was employee treatment of passengers. People are not very happy about the way they are treated by Amtrak employees. Mr. Vickery’s suggestion should be taken to heart by Amtrak if they want to make an impact. Both coach and sleeper passengers had complaints. A return to charm school seems to be needed and soon.
A meaningful gesture of goodwill from Amtrak.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün