Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said yesterday he will resign from his post in an effort to resolve concerns from the Trump administration. Via The Hill:
“I am stepping down as CEO to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration,” Gardner said, reflecting on his start with the company as an intern.
[...] His decision to relinquish control over the national passenger railroad service of the United States comes as Elon Musk has suggested privatizing the service.
“I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” Musk said while speaking at the Morgan Stanley conference on March 5, according to Newsweek. “I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak for example. … We should privatize everything we possibly can.”
Amtrak responded with a five-page document titled “Proposals to Privatize Amtrak.”
“Proponents of privatization assert that it would produce better service at a lower cost and reduce or even eliminate the need for public funding,” the company wrote.
“Great Britain’s recent renationalization of its rail service after three disastrous decades of privatization, and past unsuccessful efforts to privatize various Amtrak operations, show otherwise.”
