I'm Paul Comfort, and this is Transit Unplugged.

On today's episode, I'm excited to have on as our guest Stephen

Gardner, the CEO of Amtrak.

This is part of a regular program we're doing now where we're swapping

podcasts with other podcasts that are kind of in our genre, or neighborhood

as they call it, and this is one that was recorded for APTA, the American

Public Transportation Association.

They recorded Stephen Gardner at I've been wanting to get him on the

show for a while, so it's great to have him on one way or the other.

I think you'll really enjoy this episode, an in depth look at what's

happening with our National Railroad of Amtrak here in the United States.

Happy to have my buddy Art Guzzetti who is Vice President of Policy

at APTA, conduct the interview.

We're also doing some surveys online if you are listening

to Transit Unplugged on Spotify.

Take a look at some of the polls we're putting up there.

We also do some polling now and then on our LinkedIn site, Take

a look at those and if you get a chance, tell us what you think.

We're always looking for listener input as to the direction the program goes.

Hope you enjoyed today's episode with Stephen Gardner, CEO

of Amtrak, courtesy of APTA.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this special

episode of the Transit Authority.

Uh, we are recording live on the trade show floor from.

APTA Expo in Orlando, Florida.

Extremely excited today to be talking with a great audience and a great

friend, Amtrak CEO, uh, Stephen Gardner.

I'm Art Guzzetti, APTA Vice President for Policy and Mobility at the American

Public Transportation Association.

Uh, Stephen, thank you for joining us, uh, for this very special

episode of the Transit Authority.

Hi, Art.

Thanks for

having me.

Uh, Stephen, it's, it's great to be here with you, uh, today.

This morning, as part of APTA's Transform, uh, conference, uh, we

celebrated former Congressman Bob Clement.

Uh, his career, his commitment to the expanding people's transportation options

through investments in transit and passenger rail, uh, you got your start.

And, uh, Congressman's office, uh, then he was ranking member of

the House Railroad Subcommittee.

Uh, can you tell us a little about your, uh, professional journey?

Uh, how that led you to leading Amtrak, starting with an intern, uh,

in the House of Representatives, and growing all the way to that position.

Uh, tell us about your start with Congressman Clement.

Well, thanks Art, it's a pleasure to be with you, uh,

and I actually, I I'm incredibly lucky to have benefited from two

different internships that helped me achieve the professional development

I've been able to in my career.

I've been so lucky to do that.

I started first as an Amtrak intern, in fact, in Washington and working

in the transportation department and used that experience to then Get more

involved in railroading generally and worked on the freight side of

the business and then had a chance to come to Washington I'm a DC kid.

It's where I'm born and born and raised in the DC area and I think one of the

things that is special about growing up in that area is that You know, it's a

company town, everyone's in government, and, and it seems accessible to you,

because everyone's parents, they're, you know, brothers, sisters, everyone works

for the government in some way, so it seemed totally feasible to me that if I

wanted to be part of making rail a more vibrant and important part of mobility in

the United States, and I knew the federal government had a lot, a lot, a lot of

role to play in that, that one could go up and just go be part of that conversation.

Uh, I think quite naive, uh, in a certain sense, but it turned out to be true in

part because I, um, uh, was able to get an internship with the T& I, which is the

Transportation Infrastructure Committee of the House of Representatives, uh,

with their railroad subcommittee staff.

And, as you said, the ranking member of that subcommittee was a guy named

Bob Clement from Tennessee, and it just happened that he was deeply

interested in Not only railroads, but particularly Amtrak and passenger trains,

and he had a long desire to return service to his hometown of Nashville.

And, uh, and to restart, uh, an Amtrak service called the Floridian that, that

had, uh, been discontinued, uh, much to his, uh, and many Tennesseans regret.

So, um, I was this young intern, I had worked on the railroad, uh, in a variety

of operating positions, had come to be an intern, and, uh, my internship

period of the summer was coming up.

And I needed a job and I was very lucky, uh, to, uh, to have his

support and interest to have somebody who cared about railroads come work

on his staff and became his, uh, transportation legislative aide.

Um, and from there, um, had a, had a great, uh, opportunity to work,

uh, in the Senate and, and focused really on railroad and transportation

and service transportation issues.

So, I owe a lot to, to, to the Congressman for giving a young

kid interested in trains a shot.

And, uh, I'll always really I'm grateful that he, uh, had such strong leadership,

both for intercity passenger rail, but transit generally, and saw a future for

Nashville, uh, that I think probably many people couldn't see at the time

that he was, he was, uh, in Congress, and, um, and, and worked really hard

through those early transportation bills, as you, as you remember, T21

and, and, uh, the successors, uh, and ICT before that, uh, to put in place,

Some of the opportunities we have today.

Well, I was happy to know you back then, Stephen, at the beginning.

And certainly we were very proud to honor Congressman Clement today for his service.

We're here in the Expo Hall at APTA.

We gather at this critical time with so many partners from the business sector.

Can you outline the various ways Amtrak looks to the supply sector for help?

What are some of the upcoming opportunities?

That they might be looking for, uh, in the next few months.

And what are some of the contracts, uh, that you have been awarded,

that have already been awarded, that are in progress today and bearing

fruit?

Yeah.

Well, Art, it's really an exciting time for Amtrak.

It's a new era of intercity passenger rail investment.

Uh, we, we talk about this at the company all the time, that we're the

luckiest generation of Amtrak employees, except maybe that very first group

who got to stand up the enterprise.

Um, but To put in context the opportunity between the Department of Transportation

and Amtrak, there's about 60 billion dollars in federal investment available.

That's the equivalent, uh, that's available over the next five years.

That's the equivalent amount of money that's essentially been

invested in passenger rail for the entire 50 years preceding us.

So, 50 years worth of previous investment now available to us in five.

Uh, and it's a, um, a really a chance to reinvigorate a whole industry and as part

of that it's not just about Amtrak the carrier, it's about the entire ecosystem.

And all of the, uh, suppliers, vendors, innovators, uh, employees, communities

that are re engaging and passing around thinking about how to move forward.

So we're, um, working on an incredibly ambitious capital program.

We just finished our fiscal year.

We spent about 3 billion in capital, which is essentially a 100 percent

increase from about 4 years ago.

So a huge increase in 24, FY 24, the fiscal year we just started, our capital

budget is about 5 billion dollars.

So, uh, to do all that requires a whole new workforce, we've hired about 8,

000 people in the last two years, Art.

An incredible increase, uh, and, and a new generation of railroad workers.

And then an entirely expanded and new Uh, vendor and supplier base, so we, uh,

have about 15 billion in contracts to let over the next, uh, 12, 12 and a half,

13 months, uh, and we're working hard to get the community, uh, to understand

our pathway forward, and for the first time, I think what's really important

for Amtrak, which is, you know, we've been a unique position, which is we've

An entity that's funded on an annual basis, even though we have this big, huge

capital program that we need to develop.

For the first time, the IIJA, the bipartisan infrastructure

bill, gives us five years of guaranteed funding, more or less.

And that's allowing us to go out to market for these multi billion dollar contracts.

Um, right now, we just awarded a CMAR, uh, Constructor Manager at Risk,

uh, contract for our new Frederick Douglass Tunnel in Baltimore, a six

billion dollar, Huge program there.

Uh, we have a number of exciting procurements coming out.

Everyone should go check out the Amtrak procurement portal.

It's got the whole list there.

We've got about 10 opportunities currently, and we're really, uh, engaged

in also diversifying our supplier base, a whole new supplier, uh, supplier

diversity effort at the company.

And we're bringing lots of folks into the market that have never really

seen the opportunity before, because we haven't built at this level.

But, uh, Amtrak's now a major construction company in addition to a railroad,

and, uh, we need partners all over America to help us implement the vision.

And,

uh, just to pick up on what you just said, uh, Stephen, and to talk

to all the, uh, suppliers and business community here today, uh, how would

you describe, is that a market signal?

You know, in the past, uh, maybe the signal wasn't as strong as it is now.

You now know that there's investment to be made this year, and there's

investment to come after that.

Uh, how can the business community prepare and anticipate that

kind of, uh, uh, ongoing market?

Yeah, I, I think it is a strong signal.

And, um, I, I think if you just step back and think about it, you know,

Amtrak and, and my predecessors, we were always in a big bind about how to

Take care of some of the big assets, whether it be fleet or stations or

infrastructure, without knowing whether we could sort of write the check at

the time, the dollars were due, right?

We could start a procurement, we could order some equipment, but in

five years, when we had to pay the bill, would the money be there?

We didn't have any certainty there.

And so it was a huge risk for the company, uh, to engage in that kind of.

Let's call it speculative but important planning.

What's really changed now is we have confidence about our

ability to write the check.

And that means we can really bring forward projects we've been building

in the planning pipeline for decades and now move into construction.

Um, I think our partners in, uh, the Vendor community suppliers, contractors,

uh, they can feel confident that this is a new era of opportunity.

Amtrak's really rebuilding our capability to partner with them so we can be a

good counterparty and so that People are attracted to our jobs because we know

there's a lot of competition for big infrastructure out there, not just in

the rail and transit space, but across highways and aviation and energy, water.

So we need to be good, good, attractive owners to work with.

And we're building up that capability.

But I think the market here is hopefully just getting started.

Our goal is to find great partners, deliver as promised for the public.

And that means this initial investment is in fact just The down payment on

the billions of investments that we see necessary to deliver a 21st century

rail network and to serve more America, which is, which is really top on our

list since we think passenger trains are key to the future of the country.

Steven, question.

Why is travel by intercity passenger rail so much more prevalent in Europe and Asia?

How can the U.

S.

travel options be made more attractive?

Uh, we were together recently at the World Congress on High Speed Rail in Morocco.

What can we learn from the international community?

What can we, um, do to bring our standards up to theirs?

Well, I think we've, we've started with what I just

described, which is a commitment of investment for a period more than a year.

And if you look at rail systems across the globe, um, they all take a long term,

policy centered, Sustained investment approach to deliver enhanced networks.

And that's what we've missed.

I mean, in Europe from 2020 to 2000, so about 20 years, the investment

in rail was a trillion dollars.

Trillion, right?

So the question is, you know, why do we have the system we have?

Because we've only invested for the system that we have, right?

We get what we pay for.

If we want a better system that serves more of America and that offers more

frequencies and better trip times, more reliability, we need to invest.

And we've started to do that here with this bill.

And, um, our key now is to turn that opportunity into results and

demonstrate that this is a path.

That, um, we should take as a nation and, and that it was a wise initial investment.

But I think the, the other key, uh, that, that is important to

remember is Amt, you know, the United States has a huge rail system.

We have the largest rail network of any nation on earth.

Uh, so we have railroads, we have rides away here.

Uh, the question is how do we update them and modernize them for, uh,

passenger service and freight?

Because we need both.

We need rail to do more.

In both sectors across the nation and it's about finding that right

design and right planning approach.

That's really different than the rest of the world because mostly, everywhere

else, the infrastructure is publicly owned and this question of prioritizing

the infrastructure's use for mobility, for people and goods is something that

the public decides, uh, through its planning regime as opposed to, um, our

system where It's a partnership, and it involves collaboration, and we're invested

in making that collaboration work.

Stephen, Amtrak recently received a number of grants

through FRA's Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements

Program, a program we know as CRISI.

Uh, can you describe the system improvements those funds are going

to bring about, uh, on Amtrak?

Yeah, we're really excited about these grants, and I'd say

they're the first sort of big, uh, set of announcements that start what, what

I hope is a whole season of, of big announcements to come as the DOT works

through some other grant programs that, uh, hopefully will be announced here, uh,

in the next couple of weeks or months.

Um, the big Exciting project that I think tops the list.

Amtrak was successful in about 200 million of investment from the program.

We really thank the leadership of the Secretary and the

Administrator, Amit Bose.

Um, but the one that tops the list is our Gulf Coast service.

This is a partnership between us and those, the freight railroads

who own the infrastructure, uh, between Mobile and New Orleans to

bring service back to the Gulf Coast.

It's a service that we lost, uh, back in Katrina days.

And, um It's really exciting and, and represents really the first new

service in the South, which, uh, is a really important market for us.

When you look at where Amtrak has service and where population has grown

since we were founded in 1971, I think the Southeast is the, is the part of

the country we serve the least well.

We have the least amount of service and you've seen the most population growth.

And there are great corridors all over the South and Southeast and,

um, So I'm really excited about this, uh, mobile service, uh, which

will start, uh, sometime next year.

And the CRISI grant gives us the dollars to make a series of improvements along

the railroad and, uh, and get that service going together with the, with the

states and the Southern Rail Commission.

Additionally, we had some great safety investments, both on that corridor

and then some additional fencing, uh, along the northeast corridor.

We partnered and supported Massachusetts, uh, for, uh, some infrastructure

improvements to, uh, And then we'll begin new service between Boston and

Springfield and connecting to the south.

So a lot of great opportunity, but I think just a drop in the bucket for

all the things that we are excited to do here in the next couple of years.

We're talking today from Orlando, Florida, where just

in the last few weeks the Brightline opened service here to Orlando.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country, Nevada, California, Brightline West,

is making progress on service linking.

Uh, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, um, and California High Speed Rail

Authority makes progress on a system wide high speed rail system.

What is Amtrak's role, uh, in position, uh, or position in the future of

high speed rail in the United States?

Those being high speed systems, Amtrak being more of a

incremental, uh, type of system.

Um, are those separate or are you Come together, uh, what's high

speed rail future for Amtrak?

Sure, yeah, good, good question.

Well first, um, you know, congratulations to Brightline, Wes Edens, and uh, Mike

Reineger for, sort of, delivering on their vision of connecting, uh, Orlando here.

And, um, we're, we're in general really excited about all of these investment.

Uh, and, uh, all the investment and all the interest in expanding modern,

uh, passenger rail service, uh, whether that be high speed or high quality

conventional service, um, we think anybody who's interested in the mode is, uh, you

know, our friend, basically, because we think that the overall mission here is

to create more value and more mobility opportunities using passenger rail across

the country, so we're looking always at partnerships and opportunities to be,

um, using the, uh, kind of, you Capacity and capabilities we have at Amtrak to

support growth in passenger rail service.

Our high speed interests have been sustained for a long time at Amtrak.

Of course, a lot of focus has been on getting those speeds

on the Northeast Corridor up.

We'll be introducing 160 mile an hour service there soon.

But I think the big issue has been the lack of investment for true high speed.

And, uh, we believe that the work now with these investments that are made possible

by the infrastructure bill for planning and development can put us in position

to advance future high speed networks.

So we're really interested.

We've hired a guy named Andy Byford came to us, uh, from his time in the

UK and, uh, in New York MTA in Toronto.

He's a great leader in, in our industry to focus on our high speed,

um, Program and portfolio at Amtrak.

And really we see this as an opportunity to bring together, uh, and, and really

facilitate or support, uh, regions that see high speed in their future.

So, of course, California is doing great work to advance their system.

Interested in the Brightline West work.

Looking at, uh, partnering where we can, uh, support up in the

Cascadia and the Pacific Northwest.

But we see high speed as an integral part of the future network.

Um, one that sits on the base of a big conventional network.

That's how it works everywhere in the world.

You know, you don't have just high speed alone.

You have high speed supported by regional and inner city service and transit.

That's what makes the whole system work, um, but we see a bright future, and I

think now's the time to make these initial investments and build up the momentum

so the next infrastructure bill, which is already going to be upon us in 2027,

not far, uh, we're ready to make the case for the kind of investments we need

to really launch a world class system.

We're getting there one step at a time, that's for sure, Stephen.

And, uh, can you explain to listeners how Amtrak works with states to,

um, provide corridor service?

What opportunities are there to grow new and improve passenger rail, uh, given

the funds available through IIJA Act, uh, which, um, creates opportunities

for passenger rail, working with states?

Yeah.

Well, states are really the heart, uh, and soul of, uh, Amtrak's,

uh, nat national network.

Uh, we have this great long distance network that sort of serves the,

as the foundation, I'll say, for all of our service, but on top of

that, our state corridors are really the big driver of, uh, ridership.

They produce about 50 percent of all of Amtrak's riders.

And let me say it's really great to see our ridership come back.

Last three months we've been about 120 percent of our pre pandemic

levels on the Northeast Corridor and about 110 percent of our pre pandemic

levels on the national system.

So we're fully recovered and in fact ahead of where we were

starting from the pandemic.

For more information visit www.

amtrak.

com And a lot of that comes from our partnership with states.

The way that works is the federal government has established essentially a

cooperative between us and states where, uh, we, Amtrak, bring access rights to

the railroads, equipment, all the systems.

Our skilled craftspeople and technology and partner with local

sponsors at the state level to operate train service less than 750 miles.

So these are typically corridors connecting a couple of major cities.

Might be intrastate, might be interstate, might involve a couple

of different state partners.

And we enter into annual contracts and we have a commission basically

that has governance around this whole structure and, and a lot of

leadership from the DOT and FRA.

The infrastructure bill provides some really great opportunities

to expand that service.

One, by creating a new quarter development program, identification development

program led by the FRA, and we were really happy to, I think, try and get, um, a

clear message to Congress that there's a lot of opportunity to expand the network.

Our goal is to double our ridership size by 2040, so

that's about 66 million riders.

And the only way we do that is by serving more communities with

new service and to do that in partnership with our state colleagues.

So this corridor ID program came out of the bill and it's a way

for these corridors to get into a pipeline of development, kind of

like the FTA CIG program, right?

Where there's a staged program and an opportunity folks can get into

the pipeline and know that at the end they would have an opportunity

to see capital investment.

Additionally, new, um, a new lower barrier to the operating costs

of new service, uh, through the Restoration Enhancement Program.

Some of the big things that are going to come out of all this are

the service to the Gulf Coast I mentioned, new service coming to the

Twin Cities, uh, an extension of our Hiawatha service there next year.

Two new frequencies, uh, coming back, five and six on the Cascades, uh, so a

couple of near term routes, and then a lot of things as the Corridor ID program

develops here that are gonna be put in motion that'll deliver service in the

near term, say, three to five years, and, uh, we're, uh, partnering with

states all over America to do that.

And, and with other, uh, partners as well, because, um, we, we want to

again, add value where we can, which is, doesn't mean we have to do everything.

We try and find the spot that we can make a difference in and, and, and support

our partners.

A pipeline, a robust pipeline, a project that's a, a good signal for

the business community and a good signal to the public, uh, as well.

In addition, uh, to these growing corridors, the FRA is undergoing a study.

of Long Distance Network, uh, what are you looking for out of that, Stephen,

uh, in terms of the future Long Distance, uh, Network that, uh, that you operate?

Well, we, um, we're really excited about

the Long Distance Network.

First, Congress made a very strong commitment to preserving the current

network in this bill, and, really importantly, to re fleeting Uh, the

network as it exists today, so we have a, you know, the backbone of that fleet is

basically late 1970s, uh, through the 80s, and we are about to undertake the largest

uh, Rolling Stock Procurement in America since about 1947 in the New York Central,

so we're looking to have an incredible opportunity for car builders to be part

of creating a new generation of long distance equipment that can serve today's

15 routes and this study as you mentioned that the FRA is leading is looking forward

past the active sort of Updating what we have and thinking about what else could

we add to that system and we're really excited about those opportunities and it's

going to take Congress, uh, of course, following through with investment to make

that happen because, um, it certainly would take investment, but we think the

Longest Network today has been a, through COVID and, and post, it's been a really

a strong, strong performer, um, and one that I think has shown its value, um, in

the near term, what, We were interested in a couple of projects that I think are

pretty compelling, which is to get those seven three day a week trains, we have

two of them, up to seven days a week, so we have daily service on some of the

routes, and also some places where, for instance, we don't serve today Phoenix,

which is a huge omission, uh, up there with places like Nashville, where we,

we, we just are absent in the market, uh, and we'd like to be able to run our

sunset service via Phoenix, and that involves restoring some track there, so

we're looking at incremental improvements while this study's going on, and then

Congress, um, has the chance to act and, and put in motion the kind of future

growth that's necessary, um, on the fleet side to see expansion long distance, and

look at the network and see where we can add more value connecting our regions.

When, as you plan to develop that national network, uh, you also

have the very heavily traveled Northeast Corridor, where you've worked with, uh,

states for, for quite a few years to plan, uh, you know, improvements to America's

highest traffic, uh, growth corridor.

Uh, what improvements can riders expect to see in the coming years,

and what kind of regional impact?

What will a healthy Northeast Corridor make to America?

Uh, well, um, Art, it's a great question.

I mean, the Northeast Corridor is the main line of passenger

railroading in North America.

It's, uh, there's no corridor quite like it in terms of density.

Uh, right now it's about 2, 000 trains a day.

Uh, on this railroad, uh, between Amtrak commuter railroads and, and,

and our freight, uh, colleagues, uh, so it's really a, a special piece of

infrastructure connecting this sort of pearl of cities up, up the coast, um,

but it is in need of huge investments to recapitalize its assets, most of which

are 100 or 100 plus years old, and that's what we're really focused on right now,

so, um, In a sense, the first thing people are going to see is a lot of construction.

You know, that's not, and usually that's not necessarily a great thing we all

know from sort of You know, when people have cones out on the highways, etc.

But we're working really hard to make sure that as we rebuild the railroad

we also are improving service.

That's gonna show up as new equipment and our newest sellers which we hope to

launch next year and replacing our AM fleet, which is the regional equipment.

Uh, with new, um, uh, state of the art trainsets in about 2026.

So, um, there'll be new trains coming.

In the meantime, we do, we're getting a ton of work done, increasing the

reliability, upgrading our assets, smoothing out the ride, uh, and, um, doing

the kind of things that are basically bread and butter to maintaining a reliable

railroad, but that Amtrak's not been able to afford to do in, in decades past.

So we're, we're digging out of a hole, frankly, are the Was made

from decades of underinvestment.

Got a lot of work to do there.

But as we do that, every one of these steps, for instance, this new tunnel

we're building in Baltimore, that's going to allow us to have a hundred

mile an hour alignment into the city as opposed to 30 mile an hour alignment.

Uh, and it's gonna not only benefit Amtrak by reducing trip time and creating

reliability, it's gonna help our, our partner, mark, the MTA commuter service,

achieve basically a half hour trip time, uh, between new, uh, Boston, or excuse me.

Baltimore and Washington, which is a game changer for sort of bringing

the metropolitan regions together.

So, uh, a lot of, a lot of opportunity.

It's going to come kind of incrementally, piece by piece.

Um, so we ask for people's patience and there's going to be changes

in service levels and other things to accommodate all this work.

But in the end, we're going to end up with a much higher

capacity, much more reliable.

Uh, asset that's going to be hugely capacitizing to growth and mobility in

the corridor, because we all know the highway system is not going to grow, and

it can't keep up, and, um, we have, uh, a climate crisis that demands that we

come up with alternative ways to address mobility, and, and rail in the northeast,

where we already, uh, you know, rely on a big portfolio of renewables, uh, is

the way for us to get, uh, Carbon free and really highly capacitized mobility.

If there's anything that is a project of national significance,

I would say it's the Northeast Corridor.

It's the foundation of so much economic activity that benefits everybody.

So, uh, keep doing good things on that, Stephen.

But as we talk about the Northeast Corridor, I also want to make sure

we also talk about rural America.

And Amtrak has a critical role.

Uh, you know, in rural America.

So I just asked to describe the importance of Amtrak to rural America.

Well, absolutely right, Art.

I mean, our, our business is really connecting communities to each other.

And that, um, means not only big cities to big cities, but to all of the intermediate

towns and communities that, um, Need access to those metropolitan regions, and

one of the amazing things that's happened during, uh, sort of post pandemic period

is all the growth and leisure demand, and that's one of the things that's really

benefiting Amtrak is people want to get out and experience and explore America,

and the train allows you to get to sort of the heart of small towns all over the

country, and also to really engage in the pageantry and sort of grandeur of

our nation and our geography, and so, uh, Whether it's the Empire Builder,

which is, you know, a route that many people, uh, love and delivers you to

Glacier National Park's front door, or the Coast Starlight, or the Zephyr, um,

these are places that take, uh, I think, people from all over the world to some of

the really special parts of our nation.

Some of the less discussed and sort of maybe heralded but just as important

are the many communities we serve on our long distance network, particularly

in the south and in the midwest, places where without Amtrak, there's

no public transportation, there's no opportunity for people to travel.

And last, they have our service, because bus service has retrenched, uh, regional

airline service has dramatically, uh, retrenched since, um, the pandemic,

and that was already a trend well underway, so many places, we're the

only service, I just took a, took a Capital Limited to the Texas Eagle to

the Sunset and a great trip all across the country and you know you get up I

make sure to get up at every station.

I get up at 3 a.

m See who's getting on the train It's incredible some of the places

I go, and there's 30 people at 3 a.

m Waiting for a train in a place like Little Rock Which

is you know hardly rural?

It's a major city, but It's the only transportation option available to

connect from Little Rock to some of the smaller communities up and down the line.

And if you think that's the demand at 3am, you know, what could we do

if we served these communities at the right time of day, with the right

frequency, with reliable service?

So I think there's just huge amounts of demand and opportunity, and

finally the dollars are coming to allow us to start to build, I think,

the network that's worthy of it.

Vital.

Those are vital mobility connections and, uh, I know you had a lot

of support from those states and we're gonna keep, uh, pushing.

Uh, Stephen, as I look around, I see students, uh, students

that are here, so just, would you have a message for students?

You started young with a love of railroading and have continued

that to have a wonderful career contributing, contributing to our

communities, contributing to our nation.

What might you, what message might you have to our students?

Would a career in railroading be an attractive option for them to pursue?

Well, let me just say, I think Um, career in railroading is great.

I've been so, uh, lucky to, um, and, and let me also just say, I think,

you know, for a long time, our industry was in retrenchment, right?

I was, I remember when I first arrived at Amtrak, you, if we were all, if we

were in a room and there were a hundred people in the room, I asked how many

people, how long people have been there.

Most of the hands would say 30 to 35 years.

Some people worked at the company 40 years, and the people who had

been in the company for less than 10 were maybe, you know, 10%.

Uh, and it was, uh, an, an, an era where most of the folks who worked in

our business were holding on, they were sort of preserving a network through

difficult and lean times, and they did their job, they did a great job

keeping together a system sort of with the, Bailing wire and duct tape and

got us to a point now where we get to reinvent that system and reinvigorate it.

And so we're, uh, looking high and low everywhere we can for people

who share that passion and mission for enhancing transportation.

And, um, the opportunity's never been greater.

We, as I said, we've hired 4, 500 people this year.

We're looking for sort of all types and all roles all across America.

And, um, so.

For folks in school who are thinking about transportation, um, I can't say

enough about the unique role that I think Amtrak can, can offer because

of our geographic, just, uh, you know, coverage and the many different types

of activities we have at the company.

You know, if you think about it, we're a hotel, a bus operator, a power company,

a transmission company, a construction company, a restaurant, you know, a,

uh, tech, a, um, E commerce company, sales and distribution, marketing

enterprise, all these different functions have to be housed in a railroad.

So there's so much opportunity for people to get involved in different things.

And I think, you know, my, my view, even though I'm a total train nerd, variety

within the universe of railroading, I think, is what's really fun.

You could have no more rewarding, rewarding career

than what you just described.

That's, that's awesome.

Just a, just a couple more, uh, questions, Stephen.

Uh, we work together just to Uh, an hour or two ago in a, in a session

titled, uh, making the connection, the intersection of cities, transit, and

passenger rail, any message, uh, you might want to share, uh, from those listening

to the podcast, any theme that came out of that that you found noteworthy?

Well, I, I would just, um, I would say that one

of the things that's unique in our role at Amtrak, right, cause

we're, we're created by the public.

Public sector with a public mission.

We do that with commercial and sort of private sector DNA as a

corporation, um, but we accomplish the things we do through partnership.

It, it, we're, we're never a unitary actor, we never, you know, Amtrak, much

to the frustration of many, sometimes us as well, we'd love to be able to just say,

we're going to run trains there tomorrow, or that's what we're going to do, and

I'm going to grab some equipment from some place, I'm going to start running

trains, it doesn't work that way, we do everything we do through partnerships,

partnership with states, with communities, with our federal government owners, uh,

with Congress, and it's through that collaboration that we get stuff done.

So it takes a certain perseverance, uh, in, sort of, evangelical spirit

in a way to like, get everyone connected and see the opportunity

and try to make things happen.

And, um, you know, at Amtrak, we want to be the sort of active

ingredient in getting stuff done.

And that means finding partnerships.

Everywhere we can at every level to try and enhance mobility and I think

that's one of the things that came out of the conversation we had today with,

with mayors and, and, and community leaders at the local level, how do we

build, um, a better partnership and more structure and support for connecting the

different levels of government, private sector, enterprises like Amtrak, our

freight colleagues, uh, to enhance, uh, mobility because we all know it's in,

it's all in our collective interest.

I mean, there's a, So if it can't be any more obvious that we all benefit

tremendously when we have an efficient system that provides opportunity for

people and, um, we sometimes let the divisions get in the way and with all

this new investment, the time is now for us to achieve real results and

sort of prove to the public that given the shot, we can get stuff done that

that's meaningful and creates value.

So, um, but we're only going to do that by all working together.

It was a wonderful conversation, Stephen, you had with

mayors, uh, and those who weren't able to attend, uh, you can watch the

recording of it, so please, uh, look for that on the APTA website, and, well,

Stephen, we're about at time here, so I'm going to ask if there are any, uh,

cl concluding thoughts that you might want to squeeze in, uh, what can APTA

do and other advocates gathered around us do to, to move the long awaited,

uh, passenger rail agenda forward?

Well, thanks, Art.

First, just let me thank you for, Thank you for doing this and having me on.

Um, you know, I think APTA is an incredibly important organization that

brings focus, uh, to, you know, I think a huge part of mobility that often is sort

of below a lot of folks radar, right?

And it's, I, and you bring focus and attention both, um, to people who can

find an incredibly meaningful career for industry and private sector who are

looking for new opportunities to bring innovation and, and develop capacity.

And, And, and alert, uh, our political leaders, both at the federal level and

state and local level, how important and vital the role of mobility is and

the role that public transit plays.

So I think, um, I want to recognize and applaud that.

I, I think that we are, um, in this period of time where there's a lot of

opportunity and investment happening, but already I'm thinking about 2027.

It's not far.

The debate, as you know, will begin if Certainly in 2026, if not

well before in 2025 about the next set of investments necessary to

build on this initial investment.

And so, um, we need to be thinking about how we have this investment serve as The

down payment for what, what really I think is a 20 year program of investment across

our infrastructure to recover the lost decades and put our whole network sort of

regardless of mode into the 21st century.

And, um, so we need to start celebrating the successes that we're having now

and start to create the vision for how this continues and is worthy of further

support, uh, as when the time comes.

Well, thank you, Stephen.

And thank you to our live audience and to our listeners for joining

us for this episode of the Transit Authority APTA's official podcast.

We thanks again to Stephen Gardner for taking time to join us.

Everyone be sure to subscribe to our podcast at podcast.

apta.

com or wherever you subscribe to podcasts.

Thanks again.

Hi, this is Tris Hussey editor of the Transit unplugged Podcast.

Thanks for listening to this special episode of Transit Unplugged from our

friends at The Transit Authority at APTA with Art Guzzetti and Stephen Gardner.

Now coming up next week is the first of two episodes that come to

you from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the newly rebranded Metro link Tulsa.

First up, we have the head of Metro link, Tulsa, Scott Marr talking about his system

and his plans for a BRT line to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66.

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Ride safe and ride happy.