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#81

Off the Record / Re: Life on the Rails

Last post by Savonarola - August 29, 2025, 01:40:09 PM

From Railway Technology

Amtrak announces 450 job cuts to achieve $100m in annual savings
This decision arises amid uncertainty about future financial support from Congress.

May 13, 2025
Amtrak, the US public passenger rail provider, has announced plans to cut 450 positions as part of a strategy to reduce annual expenses by $100m.

This decision comes amid uncertainty regarding future financial support from Congress and pressure from the Trump Administration.

The company stated that the job cuts, which include a reduction-in-force process and the elimination of unfilled roles, are expected to contribute significantly to achieving the targeted savings.

The announcement follows a leadership change earlier this year, when Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner resigned from his position "to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration."

Amtrak president Roger Harris is overseeing operations as the board has yet to appoint a new CEO.

Rail Passengers Association president and CEO Jim Mathews expressed concern over the proposed job cuts.

"Rail Passengers is very concerned that these personnel cuts will hinder Amtrak's ability to efficiently serve America's passengers and manage the scores of major construction projects that Congress funded through the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act (IIJA).

"We've particularly concerned about reports that Amtrak has laid off members of its procurement team and capital delivery team, who are playing a vital role in managing billions of dollars worth of investments that will address the railroad's crippling state-of-good-repair backlog," he said.

Elon Musk, who has led a job-cutting exercise at the Federal level, expressed the view that Amtrak should be privatised. He previously campaigned, unsuccessfully, against funding for California's high-speed rail project.

During his first term, Donald Trump consistently pushed for reductions in funding for the rail service, which received approximately $2.4bn in federal support in 2023.

In 2021, Congress approved $66bn for rail projects under the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act (IIJA), with $22bn earmarked for Amtrak over a five-year period, in addition to regular funding.

In March, Congress allocated $2.42bn for Amtrak, covering funding through the end of September.

Mathews stated that the IIJA signifies a significant investment in the revitalisation of the country's rail network.

He said: "If we abandon this investment less than four years after it was enacted, we will be committing to inefficient and unreliable train services for generations to come."

Amtrak reported a significant increase in ridership, surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 2024, with a total of 32.8 million customer trips, marking a 15% rise from the previous year.

Passenger revenue also saw an increase, reaching $2.5bn, up by 9% compared to 2023.

However, the rail operator recorded an adjusted operating loss of $705m for the year ending September 30, 2024, although this figure represents a 9% improvement from the previous year.

Meanwhile, Amtrak has begun major construction at its King Street Yard in Seattle, US, focusing on building a new maintenance facility covering nearly 100,000ft².

All cut positions are white collar positions, (operators and maintainers are unionized.)

This will hit us, since the capital planning and procurement people are who we deal with.  Amtrak isn't always the quickest company to work with, and this will make matters worse.  In addition to this, a number of our own layoffs targeted the project managers who had worked on the Amtrak projects, so our PMs have no experience working with Amtrak.

It did hit us.  Amtrak got about half the outstanding contracts signed with us that they had planned this fiscal year (ends this Sunday.)  Amtrak still plans to continue on the other projects, but the technical review cycles and contract resolution is even slower now.

#82

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Syt - August 29, 2025, 01:35:43 PM

OPB seems to like it so far.

#83

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Norgy - August 29, 2025, 01:31:28 PM

Eugene V. Debs beats Trump as he ran for president behind bars.

#84

Off the Record / Re: Routine Shootings at US Sc...

Last post by Zoupa - August 29, 2025, 01:17:23 PM

Same. After Sandy Hook, it's like america decided they're ok with dead kids.

#85

Off the Record / Re: Routine Shootings at US Sc...

Last post by Sheilbh - August 29, 2025, 12:55:28 PM

I simply don't know why we cover these stories from the simple point that there is no political will to do anything to change it. Like yes, it is very sad but I am also completely numb to such sadness as we seem content to keep a system that ensures this cycle of violence.

Yeah I have to be honest I struggle after Sandy Hook. I can't believe that had so little impact.

#86

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Sheilbh - August 29, 2025, 12:51:40 PM

An interesting diversion is how American trade unions were fundamentally different to European ones in the post-war era. There were few traces of leftism in US trade unions, compared to say the metalworkers' union even in Norway, which was the more radical one here. Along with the elevator builders' union, which was taken over by Maoists some time in the 1970s.

I'm not an expert on it by any stretch but I've read a little bit about interwar American labor radicalism and the first red scare and it is like a fascinating glimpse of another world that just does not exist.

Ours were never experimental enough to try Maoists I think in the seventies we had at least one union leader with fairly strong evidence they were spying for the KGB and another who appears to have been spying for MI5.

Edit: On the other hand one of the big four Trotskyist cults that riddle the British was very focused on entryism within the trade union movement and trying to control industrial democracy.

Unions are in general not monolithic power blocs, but organised interest groups with their very own problems with power struggles etc.

I would, at the end of the day (god, I hate myself for using that phrase), say trade unions have been more of a force for progress than not.

I am 100% behind unions. I think the decline of organised labour is one of the big causes of lots of problems we have in the developed west right now.

But totally agree on that issue especially the point when they try to coordinate.

#87

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by grumbler - August 29, 2025, 12:26:38 PM

Labor unions are to labor what corporations are to capital. They both exist to serve a specific function for a specific group of people and both are often counterproductive due to a focus on short-term results.

#88

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Tonitrus - August 29, 2025, 12:23:59 PM

Perhaps more like "Lincolnshire banning...", since this is just Alberta.

#89

Off the Record / Re: How do you know if your po...

Last post by Norgy - August 29, 2025, 12:01:01 PM

The MSI's history certainly is interesting. Rodolfo Graziani was made a figurehead, although he was more of an apolitical, albeit ardent nationalist than the typical fascist.

In Sweden, Per Engdahl's "New Swedish Movement" morphed into what today is the Sweden Democrats, a party I have a hard time placing anywhere on the political scale except "anti-immigration until we die".

#90

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Norgy - August 29, 2025, 11:57:30 AM

The relationship between trade unionism and Marxism is an interesting one, and I think it's something that is sometimes overstated.  Marxism added a veneer of intellectual rigour to the age-old guild practice of 'we stick together to push up our take', but Marx also made some claims about social development and the labour theory of value that are pretty dubious.  Marx's writings were influential, but more in terms of how they were used as opposed to their content.

Bernstein's reformist agenda won out, but the Marxist tag was of course nice to use for those opposed to trade unions.

Recent polls show Labour ahead among the trade union members, but the Progress Party is quite significant too.

An interesting diversion is how American trade unions were fundamentally different to European ones in the post-war era. There were few traces of leftism in US trade unions, compared to say the metalworkers' union even in Norway, which was the more radical one here. Along with the elevator builders' union, which was taken over by Maoists some time in the 1970s.

Unions are in general not monolithic power blocs, but organised interest groups with their very own problems with power struggles etc.

I would, at the end of the day (god, I hate myself for using that phrase), say trade unions have been more of a force for progress than not.