Amtrak CEO Steps Down To Keep Trump’s ‘Confidence’ In Agency

The CEO of Amtrak announced Wednesday that he is stepping down after billionaire Elon Musk suggested privatizing Amtrak and criticized the national rail service as “a sad situation.”

“I am stepping down as CEO to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration,” Stephen Gardner said in a statement. “I am so proud of what the Amtrak team has accomplished to bring passenger rail service to more people and places across the country over these past 16 years, and I thank the Board for their trust and support.”

“We did a lot together to make Amtrak safer, more modern, and a better travel experience for all our customers,” Gardner added. “From my start as an Amtrak intern back in the 1990s to ending as CEO, it has been my honor and privilege to lead this great American company, and I wish Amtrak every success. See you on the rails.”

During a March 5 virtual appearance at a Morgan Stanley technology conference, Musk, who leads the non-Cabinet level Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to cut government spending, said the government should “privatize everything we possibly can.” Musk reportedly said the government is “in much worse shape than any commercial company could ever be,” adding, “I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized.”

According to NBC News, Musk said that privatizing Amtrak, which was founded in 1971 and receives state and federal subsidies, would give it a “chance of going bankrupt,” ensuring “a feedback loop for improvement.”

After Musk’s remarks at the technology conference, Amtrak published a document on its website that stated, “It is not clear what problem Amtrak privatization proposals are intended to solve” and “despite inadequate federal funding” since its inception, “Amtrak has achieved notable success.”

The document also said that if Amtrak were privatized, it “would face the same constraints,” but would lack the “essential statutory right to operate over the national rail network.”

Amtrak also offered Britain as an example, writing in the document that in 1994, Britain’s train operations went private and then later backtracked after 42 people died because of the “negligence of the private infrastructure owner.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Amtrak’s board thanked Gardner for his work and said its members “look forward” to working with Trump and Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, on building a “world-class passenger rail system this country deserves.”

Trump has also suggested privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, and in March, Musk called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” that should be privatized.

During the technology conference, Musk criticized Amtrak, saying, “If you’re coming from another country, please don’t use our national rail. It can leave you with a very bad impression of America.”