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Commentary
January 7, 2025|Intercity

Amtrak’s Gardner: His Legacy on the Line

Written by Frank N. Wilner, Capitol Hill Contributing Editor
Amtrak CEO Stephen J. Gardner. (Amtrak Photograph)
Amtrak CEO Stephen J. Gardner. (Amtrak Photograph)
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE, JANUARY 2025 ISSUE: He’s a 50-year-old railroad CEO without a private aircraft or opulent corner suite. Although he superintends the only transcontinental railroad, his compensation package is a fraction of that of his peers. Darting suit-jacketless about the office, dress shirt loosely tucked, he is easily mistaken for Stan from accounting. Don’t be fooled. Amtrak CEO Stephen J. Gardner, facing an ultimate test, is better prepared than any Amtrak CEO before him—and it’s not a B-List.

Before Gardner, there were Paul H. Reistrup, a doyen of the freight side who directed a storied Amtrak car and locomotive acquisition effort; W. Graham Claytor Jr., a revered Southern Railway CEO who paused retirement out of devotion to preserving Amtrak’s national network; David L. Gunn, a gilt-edge freight and transit guy who restored Amtrak maintenance programs; and Charles (Wick) Moorman, a Norfolk Southern CEO who delayed retirement to mentor Amtrak managers on linking technology with productivity.

For Gardner to join the A-List requires protecting against an anticipated budget assault by the new President, such as renewal of first-term attempts to foist on ill-equipped states the financial burden of long-distance trains. “Even with the strong political constituency of the Empire Builder, it will be nearly impossible to achieve an eight-state agreement on funding,” says Sean Jeans-Gail, Vice President for Government Affairs and Policy at the Rail Passengers Association.

More threatening are reenergized deficit hawks intent on clawing back unspent prior congressional appropriations and snuffing out future ones. Scaled back would be maintenance and modernization and mid-construction sandbagging of Northeast Corridor projects—the New York-New Jersey Gateway Program, the Frederick Douglass tunnel modernization in Baltimore, and Virginia’s Long Bridge expansion ahead of extending the NEC to Richmond.

Although the 1974 Impoundment Control Act prohibits a President from confiscating funds already appropriated by Congress, some advisers to the new President argue the law unconstitutional, anticipating agreement by a conservative-majority Supreme Court or repeal by a Republican-majority Congress.

While Amtrak is no stranger to circling the drain, Gardner looks the best choice for carrying the leadership baton in this latest fight for survival. Decisive could be his meticulous mastery of Capitol Hill’s lingua franca and the mysterious intricacies of the legislative and budget process. Crucial partners are Amtrak-adoring mayors, state legislators and opinion leaders.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) may prove Gardner’s most sturdy ally. Amtrak critic Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and the Republican-controlled House, which in 2023 proposed a 64% Amtrak budget cut, are problematic.

Gardner’s born-for-the-job resume begins as a curious tag-along kid of a Northern Virginia county manager whose portfolio included inspecting the region’s heavy-rail Metro system and a now-gone Potomac Yard freight rail classification facility. A high school Amtrak internship provided Gardner further exposure to rail operations. 

Summer college gigs on short line track gangs and employment as a regional railroad brakeman, conductor and dispatcher added understanding of the choreography of crafts producing revenue ton-miles and the puzzle of squeezing out utility and value.

Came next an internship on the House Rail Subcommittee—hired by economist and future Surface Transportation Board member Frank Mulvey. It became full-time ahead of recruitment by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a former Amtrak board member seeking rail expertise on the Homeland Security Committee post-9/11. 

Capping Gardner’s Capitol Hill schooling was a senior staff post on the Senate Commerce Committee, concentrating on economic regulation, high-speed rail, Amtrak reauthorization and drafting the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) authorizing $10 billion for Amtrak.

Gardner joined Amtrak in 2009, advancing from top posts in policy development, infrastructure investment, technology planning, marketing and operations to Amtrak President in 2020 and CEO in 2022. This year will prove his mettle.

To suggest yesterday’s congressional friends will shield Amtrak from budget devastation tomorrow is naïve. A Capitol Hill credo goes, “If you want a friend, get a dog.” The new President, who considers spending on Amtrak “wasteful,” demands Republican lawmaker loyalty. 

Frank N. Wilner, Capitol Hill Contributing Editor

To rephrase comedian David Letterman: “I wouldn’t give Amtrak’s troubles to a monkey on a rock.” Yet fate chose Gardner. His legacy is about to be written.

Wilner’s books, “Amtrak: Past, Present, Future” and “Railroads & Economic Regulation: An Insider’s Account,” are available from Simmons-Boardman Books at https://www.railwayeducationalbureau.com, 800-228-9670.