Amtrak names new CEO and its Wick Moorman!!!

WOW! Now THAT is encouraging. Imagine a REAL RAILROADER in charge of Amtrak.

Not Mr. Clayton, but Amtrak has a good leader!

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Not Mr. Clayton, but Amtrak has a good leader!

Who is "Mr. Clayton"?

This is great to hear...congratulations to Mr. Moorman.

Next week's headline - Announcing Amtraks 21st Century Steam Program! 

Let's face it they would probably make more money than they could imagine if that happened. 

 A good choice!

Article in Railway Age

http://www.railwayage.com/inde...chief-executive.html

Hot Water posted:

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Not Mr. Clayton, but Amtrak has a good leader!

Who is "Mr. Clayton"?

OK, Claytor.

for the first time in a long time, I am encouraged by Amtrak's future. well done!

Amtrak had several CEOs and Presidents who have had railroad experience. David Gunn, Thomas Downs, Graham Claytor, the current president and a few others who's name just don't come to mind. In a way I thought that Vice President Joseph Biden who has a close relationship with Amtrak and rides the train every working day from his home near Baltimore to Washington D.C. would be considered. It's a tough job dealing with the congress who likes to micro manage Amtrak but most of them have never been on an Amtrak Train. If it were up to me I would require each of them to ride an overnight train once a year to get an idea what it takes to run the railroad before voting on Amtrak funding.

Mr Moorman has better experience at every level of railroading than any of Amtrak's past presidents. Its time that the corporation is not run by another lawyer or political hack. As a career politician, Biden would have been a very poor choice. His entire career was spent taking his check from the taxpayer, promising everything and delivering nothing.   Moorman took the job for a salary of $1/yr with incentives. Expect some big changes at Amtrak. 

Biden is a dial tone.

boy I hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it has really gone downhill. ride coast starlight regularly and have seen it go from bad to worse over the last 5 years. especially the food. not all boardman's fault, congress has to take part of blame. shame as it used to be such a joy to ride. still better than flying.

This is good for Amtrack.....and those who like trains, Rail roads led by railroaders always succeed and make me stand up and take notice. My name sake Conrail did not prosper till L Stanley Crane came in with a baseball bat and cleaned house !!! Turned it into a lean mean fighting machine. I can hardly wait for the first heritage painted amtrack unit..sets my mind a wonderin....conrail john

Rule292 posted:

I have to wonder if it's possible in the twenty first century environment to work your way up from a blue collar craft into the executive ranks. 

I think it can happen.  The stockholders of a company have to insist that a percentage of the BOD has had time making and/or serving the product, AND MUST spend a set amount of time doing the same once on the BOD.

BOD's today better realize the company they are watching  is worth NOTHING to anybody if there are no customers!

Rule292 posted:

No disrespect for Mr. Moorman, but his ultimate background is as a lawyer first, then railroader.

Where on earth do you get information from to make this asinine statement?

Mr. Moorman attended Georgia Tech and majored in Civil Engineering where he also had a Co-op with the Southern Railway. Upon graduation he hired into Southern Railway's track department and was appointed track supervisor in Albany, Georgia. I know this for a fact because my current boss was the man whom Wick replaced in 1976. Wake worked his way up to the rank of Division Engineer on the Piedmont division, left NS to earn his MBA at Harvard, came back and had various AVP and then VP positions includig Strategic Planning, Labor Relations, T-Cubed (Fiber optic), IT and operations. He was appointed president in 2005 and CEO and Chairman in 2006, before stepping down from president and CEO June 1, 2015 and retired from Chairman in October 2015. 

Nowhere in there is any gravitas for your claim that he is a "lawyer first." 

He has led NS through challenging times with the downturn in coal, and still tried hard to focus on what lawyers would call "frivolous" endeavors such as heritage units, steam excursions, and strong support of museums with ties to NS heritage including the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, Fort Wayne Historical Society and the North Carolina Transportation Museum to name a few. 

If you spent anytime with him you would know within 10 minutes that he has a genuine love of the railroad, listens to his people and solicits the opinions of his employees on all levels of management, even speaking with me multiple times.

Thats not to say Mr. Moorman didn't have many lawyers on the NS payroll giving him counsel because the entire floor at the headquarters is 2 levels below the executive level is all corporate law, but when you deal with the government on a federal and state level constantly, not to mention the thousands upon thousands of lawsuits that arise during normal railroad operations, I am sure he discussed often and frequently with attorneys and has a good knowledge of legal matters. But he is not nor ever was a "lawyer first."

The current NS CEO, Chairman and President, Mr. James A. Squires, has a law degree from the University of Chicago Law school and has a strong legal and financial background. 

M J Breen posted:

Rule292 posted:

No disrespect for Mr. Moorman, but his ultimate background is as a lawyer first, then railroader.

Where on earth do you get information from to make this asinine statement?

Mr. Moorman attended Georgia Tech and majored in Civil Engineering where he also had a Co-op with the Southern Railway. Upon graduation he hired into Southern Railway's track department and was appointed track supervisor in Albany, Georgia. I know this for a fact because my current boss was the man whom Wick replaced in 1976. Wake worked his way up to the rank of Division Engineer on the Piedmont division, left NS to earn his MBA at Harvard, came back and had various AVP and then VP positions includig Strategic Planning, Labor Relations, T-Cubed (Fiber optic), IT and operations. He was appointed president in 2005 and CEO and Chairman in 2006, before stepping down from president and CEO June 1, 2015 and retired from Chairman in October 2015. 

Nowhere in there is any gravitas for your claim that he is a "lawyer first." 

He has led NS through challenging times with the downturn in coal, and still tried hard to focus on what lawyers would call "frivolous" endeavors such as heritage units, steam excursions, and strong support of museums with ties to NS heritage including the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, Fort Wayne Historical Society and the North Carolina Transportation Museum to name a few. 

If you spent anytime with him you would know within 10 minutes that he has a genuine love of the railroad, listens to his people and solicits the opinions of his employees on all levels of management, even speaking with me multiple times.

Thats not to say Mr. Moorman didn't have many lawyers on the NS payroll giving him counsel because the entire floor at the headquarters is 2 levels below the executive level is all corporate law, but when you deal with the government on a federal and state level constantly, not to mention the thousands upon thousands of lawsuits that arise during normal railroad operations, I am sure he discussed often and frequently with attorneys and has a good knowledge of legal matters. But he is not nor ever was a "lawyer first."

The current NS CEO, Chairman and President, Mr. James A. Squires, has a law degree from the University of Chicago Law school and has a strong legal and financial background. 

 

Excuse me, I stand corrected.  Must be the current CEO I was thinking of. 

I will delete my confusing and incorrect post. 

I was alluding to heritage paint in its truest form ala 1950 style e unit markings.

john f penca jr posted:

I was alluding to heritage paint in its truest form ala 1950 style e unit markings.

That would have been well prior to the existence of Amtrak. Besides, does Amtrak even HAVE any "E" units?