A new day has come!

Hi everyone,

Well, it is a new day in the world of railroading. No, not from the elections here in the United States. The UTU is announcing that the CEO of Amtrak, Alex Kummant, is now out. Gee, is anyone surprised?

As you probably are aware, I am not. However, I did find the article on the UTU website informative. It has information about how Kummant got the job that I was not aware of. Seems the Amtrak Board at the time was looking for an airline industry person to run roost over Amtrak. It seems that there was noone in that catagory that was interested. And the Board actually hired an executive search firm to make it happen!

The article points out that the people who were pushing to get Kummant on board were pretty much financial kingpins to President Bush in his political life. This along with the lack of qualifications of Kummant only served to support the idea that President Bush had Amtrak in his crosshairs for closure.

So, not only are we looking at a new President on the horizon, we are also looking at a new party to rule in Washington, D.C. with the Vice Presidnet elect an avid rider of Amtrak and his son on the Board of Amtrak.

Will all of this help Amtrak? Well, only time will tell. Just as I pointed out two years ago, time will tell. And it has.

I can't wait to hear from The Official Caller Ken on tomorrows show as we gave him an assignment in the last show to come back with a list of what Kummant has acconplished. It should be an interesting list.

In the interim, Amtrak Chief Operating Officer Willian Crosbie will sit at the head of Amtrak. He is in an interesting position to say the least.

Back to time. Time will tell but I certainly hope that the new 'atmosphere' in Washington will flow over to Amtrak and it's operations. It is long overdue.

Oh yea. Don't forget the newly approved finances just approved by Congress for Amtrak. WAIT, think back to our education class. Only the first round of the funding is approved, $13Billion over 5 years. This does NOT mean Amtrak will actually get it. It still needs to be approved by Congress and the President AGAIN, for each years funding. We can only hope.

So, enjoy the new day, it is beatiful, bright, sunny and fresh smelling.

All Aboard!!
EngineerRichard