Last week, Amtrak's depleted board of directors fired the passenger system's president, David Gunn.

I of course am not impressed with this action, because I was impressed with David Gunn. I hadn't seen a negative thing about him in various profiles and the like, and although I'm not an industry participant, I figured him to be qualified for the job. Conversely, Norman Mineta had been pretty much on my 'losers list' over issues of airport security. Several watchdogs had caught Mineta in what were either considerable errors or outright lies in his public statements regarding Amtrak, and this reduced Mr. Mineta's credibility to zero in my eyes.¹

Anyways, there's a large brouhaha from Congressional representatives along the Northeast Corridor about Gunn's firing, and the best place that I can think of to keep track of it is Rip Track.² I'm willing to bet that Rip has dealt with Amtrak under Gunn's predecessor, George Warrington (now heading New Jersey Transit) as well, so some sort of comparison can probably be made. Rip has already commented upon working with Gunn's Amtrak; see here.

It probably goes without saying that I support Mr. Gunn's plans for an improved Amtrak, and do not favor the President's.

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¹ Not that my opinion of Mr. Mineta matters; he serves at the pleasure of the President, and I doubt that George W. Bush cares what I think.

² "The Northeast Corridor" is defined, more or less, as the ex-Penn Central line from Union Station in Washington, D.C., to South Station, in Boston, Massachusetts, and various States inbetween. Go Sox!

Originally, Washington-Boston service was a joint effort by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. Both were components of the Penn Central merger; the New Haven arrived in 1969 after its creditors successfully sued for inclusion. Thanks for nothing, Patrick McGinnis.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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