(The following article by Bill Stewart was posted on the Oregonian website on October 13.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Dressed in mismatched denim shirt and pants, a “relaxed but tired” Gunn discussed things from “his world” as Amtrak’s president and CEO: He’s “reasonably confident” Amtrak can survive its current budget challenge. He’s asked for $1.8 billion; President Bush talked of $1.3 billion; but the House bill is for $900 million. After years of buying fancy new equipment and neglecting maintenance and repairs, there’s a new philosophy of fixing what can be fixed and selling what can’t. “If we lined up all the equipment scrapped last year, it would make a line five miles long.” Special projects, such as Oregon’s Lewis & Clark excursions to Astoria, could be operated by Amtrak if there were enough advance notice — and if there were a guarantee Amtrak wouldn’t lose money and wouldn’t have to create a new administrative bureaucracy.
“We made our budget this year, and we didn’t ‘funny’ the books,” he said.
All transportation gets aid Repeating a familiar refrain, Gunn said Amtrak will never be a moneymaker, a profit center.
“But it is a basic and essential service to a lot of towns,” he said. “Just as every other form of transportation gets massive financial aid — airlines, trucks and cars on highways, and railroads — passenger service must be maintained. But we have to be smarter about it.”
Gunn laughed at the idea he would get federal aid if he renamed his operation “Amtrak Airlines” or even his suggested “Iraqtrak.”
As for the Winter Games in British Columbia, “I talked about that Friday in the meeting in Seattle.” But he doesn’t want to borrow a few extra trains to encourage more tourism in Washington and Oregon.
“We need to do this right,” he said. “Someone has to convince Canada to invest $10 million to $20 million in track improvements, and then the service can continue after the games are over.”
Asked who will do the sales job on Canada, he twirled the ID badge around his neck and said, “As the only Canadian citizen around here, I guess I have to do it.” Gunn still maintains his family home in Nova Scotia.
As for labor problems — crews almost walked off the job earlier this month — he flashed a big grin and said, “What problems?” He said his requests are “not draconian.”
“It’s mainly the rules that we have to have all sorts of trades and supervisors in some areas to perform very simple tasks,” he said.
Touring the private car Whenever Train No. 11 reached a stop with time to spare, Gunn invited rail workers in to see his car. Metroliners — a 30-year-old design — are more common on the East Coast, and the “Beech Grove” is a one of a kind. It’s named for the Amtrak maintenance shop that, shut down under the previous administration to save money, is now running at full speed repairing cars damaged in wrecks.
Gunn, who’s walked and talked railroading since 1964, brags that he cooked on the trip’s first leg, from the District of Columbia to Chicago. “But (chef) Gil Lamar has to know you pretty well before you mess with his kitchen,” he said.
The Amtrak boss also confessed that he’s looking forward to “going ashore,” sleeping in a hotel room for two days in Los Angeles.
As for the Pacific Northwest, he scoffed at the idea of a true and separate high-speed rail corridor. “For $1 billion, we could make all the necessary changes to get train speed to 90 to 110 mph, but never like some of the European trains,” Gunn said. “And the beauty of it is that the private railroad companies would get to move their freight faster.”