David Gunn Interview on NPR's Radio Times

The Radio Times interview is finally up and running and boy is it worth listening to. I urge all of you who have not heard this interview to listen to it as Gunn really makes a lot of good points and can give you ways to talk to other people about Amtrak and the importance of passenger rail.

Listen via RealAudio or whatever RealAudio alternative you have

http://www.whyy.org/rameta/RT/2004/RT20040402_20.ram

Wow, that was great! Gunn really defended Amtrak and made the public aware of the subsidy situation. Just one question: he mantioned something about making the Philly-Harrisburg line high-speed electric. What's the deal with that? I have not heard.

I have to say that Gunn seems no nonsense. I enjoyed when he said there was only 4 people between him and the maint supervisor at bear.

Let's hope that congress will provide the funding and Gunn can operate Amtrak like a railroad..unlike the former Pres who now heads up New Jersey transit.

it's easy to say that Gunn's a realist and Warrington was a pipedreamer, but I think George learned a few hard lessons and a couple of pointers for Gunn after his firing. There's been some level of restraint at NJT...but then again I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.

Warrington was a "pipedreamer"? What on earth does that mean?

One of the biggest differences between Messrs. Gunn and Warrington is that Mr. Gunn is getting about half a billion dollars more, per year, to run the railroad than his predecessor did.

Here's another difference: Mr. Gunn isn't being pressured, essentially minute by minute, to demonstrate "operating self-sufficiency." Recall that the Amtrak Reform and "Accountability" Act authorized the Amtrak "Reform" Council to blow the whistle whenever it determined, by simple majority, that Amtrak wasn't making sufficient progress toward this goal. Not at the quarter. Not at the fiscal year. At any time. Recall that once such a finding was issued, 2 things were to happen: The council had 60 days to draw up reorganization plans, and Amtrak managers had 60 days to draw up liquidation plans.

There's a lesson all of this, all right, and it's not just for Amtrak: Money does matter.

Fairlaine57,

Mr Warrington was not fired -- he resigned, and very abruptly I might add. A firing may have been in the works but GW pre-empted it by walking out on Amtrak.

Mr. Gunn's interview was very interesting. However, when he was asked whether he supported long distance trains, he said he did. He then added, "You're never going to have any more of them." Doe this mean that he isn't in favor of expanding the long distance train network? I listened to that part of the interview twice (it's a little past the 40 minute mark). Does anyone know any more about Mr. Gunn's position on long distance Amtrak trains?

To clarify on Mr. Fels' comment:

Mr. Gunn is getting about half a billion dollars more, per year,<i> with which </i>to run the railroad than his predecessor did.

No need to start any "greatly exaggerated" rumors of Mr. Gunn's personal wealth.

Touché. I appreciate the clarification--good catch!

The Keystone Corridor is supposed to be getting CWR, all electric locomotives, and signal improvements to help cut the time from PHL to HAR to 90 minutes.

checker629 wrote:The Keystone Corridor is supposed to be getting CWR, all electric locomotives, and signal improvements to help cut the time from PHL to HAR to 90 minutes.

For about the last year or more, there has been work being done along the Lancaster to Harrisburg portion of the Keystone Corridor to install CWR. There is a several mile long section of the westbound track between Lancaster and Elizabethtown that is being installed right now. The eastbound track is in terrible shape - probably not touched much since it's original installation in 19??.

The plan is supposed to be that the Philly to Harrisburg line will become an all-electric service with 90 minute trip times between Philly and Harrisburg and 60 minutes between Lancaster and Philly. Sure will be nice if it ever happens. There is also a $7M renovation of the Lancaster station in the plans, but the State DOT seems to want to yank some of the funding away from that project now so who knows when it will get going.

Thanks for the link to the Gunn interview. I'll be interested to listen to it when I can get the time.