Hi Fred! Yes, Amtrak laid me off during the pandemic. A few months later I landed a job with a fantastic engineering firm, and have been with them just over a year now. If Amtrak claims they are short of help, I would take it with a grain of salt, as such problems may be of their own creation. Employment in management (anyone that doesn’t have a contract / not part of a union) is a nonstop revolving door. In my five years I saw two buyouts to get higher paid, longer tenured employees to leave, multiple rounds of layoffs, times where you essentially had to reinterview for your own job, and a reorg of personnel every single time anyone from the outside was hired at the department level or higher to facilitate bringing in their contacts that they trusted (at least once a year). In total, I reported to seven different people while there – one time my boss quit, another time she was demoted, other times I was just being reorged to different teams, etc. After Boardman left Amtrak has been guided by people that have had little intention of staying very long, my only hope is that this dysfunctional behavior will diminish with stable leadership, which I assume that Stephen Gardner can provide, as he strikes me as the type that will want to try and stay there long term.

Nice pictures from the air ! However, you stated at the beginning of your post that you “haven’t been on trains very frequently this year”. Huh? I thought you were working for Amtrak the last I knew. What happened? Did the lay you off during the pandemic? Or, maternity leave perhaps? I have read that Amtrak is severely short of help.

Regards,
Fred M. Cain,
Topeka, IN