Elon Musk hinted that bankrupting Amtrak could be a good thing even though bankruptcies have been detrimental to rail workers.
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Last week, speaking to a Morgan Stanley investor conference, billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk said privatizing Amtrak should be a priority for the administration. Musk called Amtrak “a sad situation.” He went on to say, “If you’re coming from another country, please don’t use our national rail. It can leave you with a very bad impression of America.”
The anti-worker mogul, who is behind a lawsuit moving toward the Supreme Court designed to eliminate the authority of the National Labor Relations Board and other independent agencies to enforce labor laws, also has been responsible for 95,000 workers either being fired or voluntarily leaving the federal government over the past two months. It’s been reported that Musk, as Trump’s advisor and DOGE chief, was behind the unlawful firing of Gwynne Wilcox who chaired the NLRB. Removing Wilcox left the labor agency without a quorum and unable to rule on cases.
In his remarks about Amtrak, Musk hinted that bankrupting the rail agency could be a good thing. Perhaps, bankrupting a company works for Musk but it’s been the experience of BLET that railroad bankruptcies have been detrimental to rail workers.
This is not the first time that the tech mogul has taken a shot at passenger rail. According to the author of his 2015 biography, Ashley Vance, Musk holds a “hatred for California’s proposed high-speed rail system.” This may explain why the Department of Transportation recently announced a “compliance review” of the project.
In contrast to Musk’s claims, evidence shows that passenger rail service has been growing in both popularity and profitability. Last year, Amtrak achieved an all-time ridership record (FY24), transporting 32.8 million customers and adding new markets. Ticket revenue hit $2.5 billion, a 9% increase over the previous year.
Photo: Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659