Gunnery Practice:

Can Amtrak’s David Gunn

Justify Ignoring Our Station?

As time allows, I will indict David Gunn for allowing Cornwells Heights Amtrak service to fly so far beneath Amtrak’s own radar that the Cornwells Heights station manager didn’t even know that two trains stopped there every morning on their way to New York. (The manager had noticed an Amtrak train repeatedly “not moving” around 8:10 a.m. each day at the northbound platform. This was how the manager knew that one train stopped. The other one, apparently, got away clean.)

Coming from metropolitan transit systems, perhaps Mr. Gunn did not realize that those very metropolitan transit systems can actually mask the presence of a national system. Perhaps he did not realize that, especially at stations served by both Amtrak and local rail, Amtrak might actually need to hang out a sign to let people know they’re there.

We may never know how many millions of dollars in revenue were never taken in because of the egocentric notion that Amtrak, the flagship line of American passenger rail transport, somehow magically exudes its presence wherever it may go (sort of like the way cordless phones work around the house). No self-respecting Fortune 500 company would ever completely forget to promote itself.