Nothing good will come from Wednesday’s dismissal of Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner, who was pushed out as part of the White House’s purge of officials who are not deemed loyal to President Donald Trump.
The timing of the move was curious. The Trump administration has been seeking to pull funding for programs it deems wasteful or contrary to its priorities. Gardner announced his resignation on March 19, just five days after issuing a statement saying that Amtrak looked forward to receiving the $2.42 billion Congress has appropriated for fiscal year 2025. Could that be a coincidence?
No names have yet been floated about a potential replacement for Gardner.
Amtrak needs a CEO who is an experienced railroader and knows the business inside out — someone who can fix its operational and mechanical woes, improve efficiency, boost revenue, and effectively manage its ballooning capital budget. In other words, someone who has been a Class I railroad chief operating officer.
Yet thus far the Trump administration has been allergic to expertise. So what Amtrak instead will get as its next CEO is a political hack. He or she will know nothing about passenger trains or railroads. But that won’t matter: His or her marching orders will be to dismantle the national network and privatize what’s left.
During his first term, Trump sought to cut Amtrak funding in half, phase out support for long-distance trains, and block funding for the much-needed Gateway Project on the Northeast Corridor in New York and New Jersey.
Earlier this month, billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads the advisory Department of Government Efficiency as part of the administration’s efforts to upend business as usual in Washington, said Amtrak should be privatized.
Trump, meanwhile, has a vindictive streak a mile wide. And he clearly wants to erase anything that has predecessor Joe Biden’s fingerprints on it. Amtrak Joe’s signature achievement was the infrastructure law that sent billions Amtrak’s way for new equipment, route expansion, and Northeast Corridor improvement projects.
Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Congress has earmarked $22 billion for Amtrak and $36 billion in federal-state passenger partnerships through fiscal 2026. Much of the grant money remains tied up in the cumbersome Federal Railroad Administration review process, which likely will get further bogged down by job cutbacks at the agency. This means the funding is vulnerable at best.
Put all this together and the inevitable conclusion is that Amtrak as we know it will cease to exist.
Long-distance trains will disappear. State-sponsored routes will continue in some form, so long as the states pick up the tab. And the Northeast Corridor will be raffled off to the highest private bidder.
Calls to privatize Amtrak, zero out its funding, or eliminate long-distance trains are nothing new. In the past, Republicans who represent rural states in Congress always rode to Amtrak’s rescue. Neither they nor their constituents wanted to lose their long-distance trains. At the end of the day, Amtrak always emerged from political scuffles with enough funding to scrape by.
Don’t expect that to happen in the current environment. If Republicans in Congress are afraid to stand up to Trump’s plans to cut 83,000 Veterans Affairs jobs — a move that will only hurt medical care for veterans — they’re certainly not going to be willing to take a bullet for Amtrak.
All of this underscores the fact that Amtrak is as much political creature as it is a transportation company.
Wick Moorman, the former Norfolk Southern CEO who led Amtrak in 2016 and 2017, says “I really didn’t get a significant amount of political conversation or pressure while I was there. Politics are inevitable given the role that the FRA plays, and it was sometimes a little frustrating, but nothing more than that. Part of my experience was probably driven by the fact that the politicians seemed to be happy that I was there.”
That’s no longer the case. Until now, Amtrak has been able to navigate its way through political controversies. Trump has nominated Robert Gleason, the former state GOP chairman in Pennsylvania, to the Amtrak board. Gleason has championed expanded Amtrak service in the Keystone State. But by pushing Gardner out, the White House has kneecapped the Amtrak board and made it irrelevant.
Musk has called Amtrak a national embarrassment, saying it falls well short of providing world-class service. He’s not wrong.
But you get what you pay for: Comparing U.S. passenger rail to well-funded systems in Europe, Japan, or China is an unfair apples to oranges comparison given our relatively meager spending on Amtrak and the fact that most of its routes must operate over host freight railroads.
Instead of decimating Amtrak, why not provide the funding and proper oversight required to Make Passenger Rail Great Again? Flying is a hassle. Driving gridlocked interstates is a nightmare. On trips under 500 miles, there’s no better way to travel than on a passenger train.
You can reach Bill Stephens at bybillstephens@gmail.com and follow him on LinkedIn and X @bybillstephens
Left unsaid is the active role of the class 1s to intentionally operationally cripple long distance (eg, Southern Crescent, CN, UP) and many state supported trains (Empire Service). Add to this fact, the industry employees swarms of DC lobbyists (how else to explain the Rail Safety Act of 2023’s bipartisan derailment and death). Both are insurmountable barriers for Amtrak. Only dedicated public policy and litigation can remove them.
The central economic planners on Wall Street have dictated every railroad adopt PSR. Passenger trains are incompatible with PSR. They require operational flexibility, well maintained infrastructure and sidings. Wall Street requires asset stripping and reduced CapEx.
There is no substantive regulation of class 1 railroads, we’re back to the Robber Barrons. Nor is their vigorous enforcement of both common carrier obligations and Amtrak’s statutory rights to operate.
In spite of Amtrak Joe and Mayo Pete trickling out some long over due funding, it has long been bipartisan legislative and executive policy to starve Amtrak and assure the US will never have world class passenger rail.
How much time could be left? I remember that VIA, in1989, announced thier cut backs 180 days before.
Is there any similar requirement in the US?
Regards
The current Amtrak model has been at it for nearly 54 years. It has never covered its costs. The failed model should be changed. Amtrak should be privatized.
The first step is to eliminate the long-distance trains. They are used by less than 2% of intercity travelers, and they are the biggest drag on Amtrak’s financial results. For the four years ended FY24 they had a cumulative operating loss of approximately $2.3 billion. Add depreciation, capitalized interest and other capital expenses, and the total is probably north of $3 billion.
Spin off the the State Supported trains to the states. If they believe corridor passenger trains are essential for their states or region, let their taxpayers pick up the tab. Ultimately, the users should pay for the trains. If they are unwilling to do so, they should be junked.
A privatized Amtrak might be able to make a go of the NEC. It would need to bring in management that understands how to run a competitive business. If a privatized Amtrak cannot make a go of it, Brightline or similar operator should have a go at it.
The time has come to stop throwing money at passenger rail that makes no sense. With a national debt approaching $37 trillion, throwing good money after bad is no long a luxury the country can afford.
Well said Paul, spoken with the true hypocrisy of a far right radical republican. Why in the world are you on this site as you are obviously anti passenger train. Maybe you work for a taxpayer subsidized road paving company.
When Amtrak was created in 1971, it was purposely designed to fail within one or two years. It was never intended to survive. The business model for privately operated passenger trains in the U.S. was broken when the Federal Government decided to create the U.S. Postal Service out of the former U.S. Post Office Department. It then canceled all of the mail contracts with the freight railroads, thereby eliminating the last bit of revenue that kept passenger trains running. This, coupled with the Government’s massive investment in building airports and operating the FAA Flight Control System, and the massive funding of the Interstate Highway System, were the final blows that forced the private railroads out of the passenger market.
What is needed, is a complete restructuring of the passenger train business model. There are multiple options, but the following two ideas might be worth consideration:
OPTION #1 — Since the Postal Service loses $10 Billion a year, reformat some of the mail contracts and offer them to railroads with the requirement that the mail be moved on passenger trains between major cities. These lucrative millions could help incentivize freight railroads, or other private rail companies, to operate passenger trains. The contracts could require that railroads operate basic services like Coach, Sleeping Car, Dining Car, Lounge Car, Dome Car (were clearances allow). Details on marketing, schedule coordination, equipment, etc could be worked out between the rail operators.
OPTION #2 — Create a passenger train business model that mimics the airline industry by:
(a) letting cities and states set up their own train station authorities to build, operate and maintain stations/terminals, just like airports are built, maintained and operated by the local airport authorities around the country.
(b) allowing all freight railroads and newly created passenger rail companies to have interline agreements that give equal access to all mainline rail routes that would be needed for each individual passenger train route.
(c) establishing within the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that same oversight and standardization policy functions for passenger trains, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversees and standardizes airline operations.
(d) lettting the FRA operate and maintain a national reservation / ticketing system to handle the website and mobile app needed to list and sell all passenger train services nationwide. This system could be an expansion of the existing Amtrak Arrow System and would be provided free to the railroads operating passenger trains. Since railroads do their own dispatching and train traffic control, this reservation/ticketing system would be in place of the FAA Flight Control System.
(e) possibly let the Department of Transportation fund upgrades to rail lines, bridges, tunnels and other supportive infrastructure on rail routes used by passenger/mail trains. This would mimic the funding given to airports and the FAA Flight Control Network.
AGAIN — The current Postal Service and Amtrak business models are broken in their own respective ways. Both need major transformations to make them sustainable. Amtrak’s recent management executives should have never been rewarded with millions in bonuses for failing to offer the products and services needed to attract and grow ridership and revenue on ALL routes. By selectively prioritizing corridor and regional trains, and by ignoring long-distance trains, Amtrak management has failed the American public. Operating trains 3-days a week, or without dining cars or lounge cars, or only allowing certain passengers to eat meals instead of snacks, or not creating innovative connections and services, etc, is no way to run a railroad!
Does America, the beautiful and brainy, want a well-funded and well-functioning passenger rail service at home, just like Europe, Japan and China? That is the essential question!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
*Corrected Comment*
Does America, the beautiful and brainy, want a well-funded and well-functioning passenger rail service at home, just like Europe, Japan and China, or not? That is the essential question!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
While reading Bill Stephens’ thought-provoking article, this suddenly came to my mind: Who were the most powerful and determinant players in intercity passenger transportation in America in the late 1960s, and who are they today?
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
This decision for making Amtrak privatized is disgraceful, disgusting, despicable, and disagreeable We have the right to write to Congress to stop budgets cuts for any passenger rail and our country needs long distance overnight Amtrak trains without them people will never be able to sleep, eat, and see the country by rail, It is important to almost everyone including the communities and the public and The CEO of amtrak shouldn’t have step down it isn’t fair
Mr. Gustenhoven writing your Congressman as I’m afraid we’ve past the point of no return in this country.
Republican legislators from flyover country will lose their trains. The price they will have to pay for not standing up to Trump’s insane tariff wars and his dismissal of military veteran heroes (who voted for him) from government employment.
I’m a 100% Republican. Trump is a lunatic.
Charles you are absolutely correct, trump is a lunatic. I really need to ask how the hell you did not see this BEFORE you cast your vote for him?
We ordinarily would be making reservations on the Auto Train for next winter but will wait and see how things turn out. The prices may well end up lower if fewer Canadians head to Florida.
Canadians may get to ride (rebranded) Amtrak equipment in their own country. After Amtrak’s long-distance trains are destroyed, the equipment likely would be available at bargain-basement prices (and if the American economy collapses, at maybe an even-better exchange rate CAD to USD than now) for a country nearby with the same railroad gauge. With Trump influencing the Canadian election (now set for April 28) to the point that a more-likely-to-be-anti-VIA Conservative party might not be in power later this year, a Liberal government might seize the opportunity to obtain Amtrak rolling stock and make the necessary refurbishment. Not only do existing trains need new rolling stock, but the completion of the upgrades to the Matapedia-Gaspe route is to be complete in 2026, and online residents want their Chaleur back….