NEW YORK — Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner rapidly resigned from his most sensible put up on the U.S. passenger railroad this week.
Wednesday’s announcement signaled that the management alternate got here all the way down to Amtrak keeping up toughen from U.S. President Donald Trump. In a remark, Gardner mentioned he used to be stepping down “to be sure that Amtrak continues to benefit from the complete religion and self assurance this management.”
A successor for Gardner used to be no longer right away named.
Gardner’s departure additionally arrives simply weeks after billionaire Elon Musk floated the theory of privatizing Amtrak, in addition to the U.S. Postal Carrier, at a Morgan Stanley tech convention previous this month.
Musk, who has been at the vanguard of the Trump management’s competitive push to downsize the government throughout the Division of Executive Potency, reportedly referred to as Amtrak “roughly embarrassing” — whilst evaluating the U.S. service to passenger rails noticed in different nations, corresponding to bullet trains in China.
When reached for touch upon Thursday, the Transportation Division didn’t supply additional main points particular to Gardner’s resignation. A remark from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took purpose at Amtrak’s Washington D.C. operations — calling on Amtrak’s management to “blank up Union Station” and “rid of our country’s treasures of homelessness and crime.”
Mentioning unnamed resources accustomed to the subject, Reuters reported Wednesday that Gardner used to be requested to step down on the request of Trump, who in the past sought to chop Amtrak’s price range in his first time period.
When reached Thursday, Amtrak declined to touch upon whether or not Gardner used to be requested to renounce. However in Wednesday’s announcement, the Amtrak board said that it seemed ahead to “running with President Trump and Secretary Duffy as we construct the world-class passenger rail machine this nation merits.”
Gardner first were given his get started with Amtrak as an intern again within the 90s. He later returned and labored on the rail carrier for the previous 16 years, conserving the identify of CEO since January 2022.
Amtrak struggled throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic — with the railroad seeing plummeting ridership as other people around the nation stopped touring and stayed house. However passenger numbers have not too long ago rebounded to pre-pandemic ranges.
For the 2024 fiscal yr, Amtrak reported an all-time ridership report of 32.8 million buyer journeys. That is up 15% from 2023 — and surpasses Amtrak’s earlier report of 32.4 million passengers in 2019.
Price ticket earnings for the 2024 fiscal yr totaled $2.5 billion, a 9% leap from 2023. And altered income additionally progressed by way of 9% year-over-year, to $705.2 million.
