Don Phillips Tee Off

Did Don Phillips ever "tee off" on Joe Boardman's management of Amtrak.

Since Kalmbach does not make their entire content available on the web - even to subscribers, here is a "Brief Passage" quote (typed) from his November TRAINS column:

The managers who could not leave quickly learned to agree with anything he says, no matter how dumb. Even then, they may be pushed out simply because Boardman needs a scapegoat. If Boardman was a brilliant manager who made things work, one could tolerate his ways, but he is a political hack, and the Amtrak board of directors accepts it.

Amtrak was invited to make comment, and a spokesman replied to "Mr. Phillips' unwarranted personal attacks".

I can only hope that "doors are not slammed in the face" of this insightful columnist; not only at 60 Mass, but elsewhere within the Class I industry.

I have always had a reasonable amount of respect for Don Phillips but this month's column was totally uncalled for. I agree Amtrak has problems but at least they know they have them and are trying to correct as many as they can. When the trains don't get signals to move then they simply can not move and I don't think Amtrak is in the situation where they can correct the major traffic problems that are occurring between Chicago and points east on both CSX and especially on NS.
Noel Weaver

The column has nothing to do with Amtrak's shameful treatment by BNSF and NS, it focuses on Boardman's apparent need to be surrounded by "yes" men and some questionable decisions such as appointing someone with no experience in railroad operations as the operations chief and ignoring proposals for improving LD trains in congressionally-mandated reports, as well as the complete abandoning of the plan to turn the Sunset into a daily train, turning the western end into an extension of the Texas Eagle and the eastern side into a day train from San Antonio to New Orleans.
I don't know how accurate these accusations are, but it could explain a puzzling lack of action on a number of highly touted plans over the past few years.

CHTT1 wrote:The column has nothing to do with Amtrak's shameful treatment by BNSF and NS, it focuses on Boardman's apparent need to be surrounded by "yes" men and some questionable decisions such as appointing someone with no experience in railroad operations as the operations chief and ignoring proposals for improving LD trains in congressionally-mandated reports, as well as the complete abandoning of the plan to turn the Sunset into a daily train, turning the western end into an extension of the Texas Eagle and the eastern side into a day train from San Antonio to New Orleans.
I don't know how accurate these accusations are, but it could explain a puzzling lack of action on a number of highly touted plans over the past few years.

If the person mentioned here is who I think it is, he has had a very long career in railroading and operations was and still is his background. Exactly what was needed at Amtrak for a long time.
Noel Weaver

Don Phillips has been escalating his attacks on Boardman for months. I have no way of evaluating their validity. From the viewpoint of an Amtrak passenger and railfan, it certainly looks like Boardman has made many bad decisions. As one example, his reducing diner staffing and menus seems like it will just alienate and drive away customers and will have little effect on diner losses. (Diners have lost money as long as they have been in existence.)
BUT...Boardman has been called a professional bureaucrat (as an insult), but maybe that is what Amtrak has to have in these hostile times, where any government expenditure has a tough time getting funded, and where Republican control of both houses of Congress after the election is a likely possibility. After all, no LD trains have been cut and states have been induced to fund some routes.
My guess is that Amtrak's terrible ontime record lately is probably related to the court decision that apparently removed some Amtrak rights with respect to the host railroads, and to the increase in railroad traffic, at least partly caused by the Bakken crude trains. It is hard to see how Boardman could solve these problems. Probably they require Congressional action, which is, to put it mildly, unlikely.

Named in the article is D.J. Stadtler, vice president of operations. Phillips says he was formerly deputy chief financial officer of the Federal Railroad Administration.

I unsubscribed from trains after they published an article supporting the concept of one-man train crews. However other than that I found most of the columns educated and professional.

I lost all respect for Don Phillips as he said Boardman stopped the sunset improvements with no reason. The reason it was stopped is UP demanded $750 million in track improvements which of course Amtrak doesnt have. Of course Phillips didnt mention that in the article. It is obvious Phillips has some sort of vendetta against Boardman. I dont always agree what Boardman has done , but I think he is doing what he can with what he has.

Mike Scholz

JoeG wrote:Don Phillips has been escalating his attacks on Boardman for months. I have no way of evaluating their validity. From the viewpoint of an Amtrak passenger and railfan, it certainly looks like Boardman has made many bad decisions. As one example, his reducing diner staffing and menus seems like it will just alienate and drive away customers and will have little effect on diner losses. (Diners have lost money as long as they have been in existence.)

However, food & beverage losses (F&B) have been reduced. The F&B revenue and expense numbers have been broken out in the monthly reports since late last year in what could be called the Mica sub-section. As of the July, 2014 report, net cost recovery ratio for F&B systemwide for FY to date is up to 50.8% from 45.0% in the same period for FY13. Long way from breaking even, but it helps keep the those who would kill the diner cars entirely at bay.

I agree there has been too much zig-zag and less than carefully planned out steps implementing cuts and changes in the diners and the LD trains, but overall, Amtrak is in much better financial shape and with reduced operating losses than when Boardman took over. Amtrak and intercity passenger train service will expand over the next 3 years, not contract (with the possible or likely exception of the Hoosier State). Now, Boardman is not responsible for much of the expansion, but he has not gotten in the way AFAIK and there have been no LD trains cut. The Viewliners and ACS-64s were ordered on his watch with the orders going ahead, despite shrinking annual funding from Congress (with a small increase in FY14).

With regards to on-time performance, while the NS meltdown in OH and IN has led to extreme delays for the CL and LSL and the EB & CZ have continued to run late, most of the rest of the LD and corridor trains have done better since the end of August. With Amtrak Status map and the neat new search tool, Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database, I have observing how well some of the other trains are doing. For example, it is not all bad news for trips to CHI, the #51 Cardinal has arrived at CHI early 11 out of 14 times since the the beginning of September. The northbound Adirondack has been arriving early in Montreal most days since the end of August. The Silvers have been doing much better for OTP recently with fewer delays on CSX and SunRail segment in FL. The Michigan and Lincoln service trains have been encountering a lot of delays, but those can be attributed to major track work and upgrade projects.

Phillips has had it in for Boardman ever since Boardman declined to grant him an interview in the early days after Boardman became president. Beyond his personal pique, Phillips is in love with railroading, especially passenger railroading, as it existed in his childhood six decades ago. Note that his complaints about Amtrak in general and Boardman in particular (not just in this column, but also in previous ones) are almost entirely focused on the long-distance trains--trains which (while some are locally important) play a very minor role in the national transportation system.. The past few years have pretty positive with respect to the NEC and other corridor services (although there's much infrastructure work on the NEC that needs to move forward). Phillips ignores this.

I've always said running amtrak is a two person job, one to deal with the hill, the other to run trains. Even then, if you're too good at running it you'll poss someone off

Boardman is seperating LD from Corridor and state -supported operations for transparency. It exposes pussy politicians who skewer Amtrak but don't want to lose their train, but still vote to de- fund Amtrak,knowing that Amtrak will cobbble together a budget to keep eveything status quo. It keeps the pressure on the employees to keep compromising and sacrificing on their contracts while maintaining that status quo. It's because the employees love the railroad as much as most of the readers and posters on this forum, but it keeps Amtrak from reaching its true potential. With the proper funding, Amtrak could be the equivilant of American freight railroads, the envy of the world. Joe Boardman is a good CEO.

Since getting dumped by the Washington Post several years ago, Mr. Phillips has become a vengeful, spiteful old man.

Yet another "Amtrak is falling apart" piece by Phillips. I am a Trains subscriber and read his columns every month. Not being an insider, I always wonder how valid they are--particularly as Progressive Railroading and Railway Age don't have similar pieces.

I think Phillips does a good job of pointing out how Boardman has not used his personnel and resources well, in comparison with Gunn, the interim president following Gunn, and Kummant. The other CEO's were basically able to keep the organization intact and did not chase off talented leaders, such as Brian Rosenwald. When Boardman instituted a buyout and forced staff reduction about two years into his tenure, many of Amtrak's best managers left. Also, during the traffic surge in '06 the only railroad to really shaft Amtrak was UP (who experienced another meltdown). When the Acela wheelsets cracked during Gunn's tenure, he kept the WAS-BOS service running with AEM-7's while the high speed trainsets were being repaired. I don't recall hearing about any 14-hr delays due to locked wheels in a SILVER STAR diner during the days of the aforementioned prior CEO's.

Andy