WASHINGTON — More than 18,000 union workers at Amtrak will receive $900 holiday bonuses to mark the company’s record year of ridership and revenue, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced.
The worker bonuses announced today (Dec. 11) come as Amtrak executives have agreed to forgo 50% of the bonuses that would have been paid out under their existing bonus structure, at the urging of the Trump administration, according to a Department of Transportation press release. Amtrak’s board of directors has also taken action to eliminate long-term bonuses for senior executives and to distribute those bonus funds to the union workers.
“We are truly in the golden age of travel,” Duffy said in a press release. “… my department is working every day to enhance the travel experience for the American peple. We rely on our incredible workforce, including our unionized workers at Amtrak, to make it all possible.”
Leaders of the two largest rail unions applauded the move.
“This long-overdue recognition of the employees who keep the railroad moving is a step in the right direction,” said Mark Wallace, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. Said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division, “SMART-TD appreciates Amtrak’s decision to prioritize the men and women who keep our passenger rail system running every day. Providing frontline employees with a meaningful bonus is an important acknowledgement of their dedication and service, especially during holiday season.”
In a separate press release, John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, also celebrated the move.
“Frontline workers make Amtrak run every day, not railroad executives,” Samuelsen said. “This bonus acknowledges that fact and, for the first time in years, restructures the Amtrak budget to direct resources to workers on the line instead of into executives’ pockets.” Samuelsen called it a “major victory” following what the union said was “years of pressure” to address executive bonuses.
Amtrak said in a Dec. 16 email to Trains.com that it had nothing to add to the original release.
Amtrak’s executive bonus structure has been a long-running source of controversy. In fiscal 2023, 13 top managers received a total of $2.98 million in bonuses [see “Amtrak defends management bonuses …,” Trains.com, June 20, 2024]. The bonus structure has also been a target in congressional hearings [see “House Republicans ask Amtrak to explain …,” Nov. 3, 2022], as well as with legislation that would require full disclosure of bonus payments and the criteria for those bonuses [see “Bill requiring disclosure …,” Jan. 14, 2025].
U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, noted in a press release that the committee has advanced legislation to make the executive bonuses public. “I commend the Administration for working with Amtrak’s leadership to redirect much of that bonus funding to the thousands of Amtrak employees this holiday season,” Graves said.
— Updated Dec. 12 at 8:10 a.m. CT with comment from Transport Workers Union; updated at 12:14 p.m. with link to original press release, not previously available on DOT website, and comment from U.S. Rep. Graves. Updated Dec. 16 with Amtrak response. To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
Out in Wisc., where he’s from, the moniker is Secy. Dummy.
By all accounts except yours, an intelligent and decent public servant. A man who walked away from a promising career in the U S House of Representatives because his family needed him more.
Since recent commentators are advocating for the elimination of long-distance passenger trains, and their removal from government subsidies, it’s time to consider this —
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Eighty years ago, the Federal Government created the current, unequal and financially unfair passenger transportation systems we now have in this country, by funding/building the Interstate Highway System and by funding/building all of the airports (and the Air Traffic Control Network). The government’s focus on subsidizing travel by autos and airplanes, and the termination of U. S. Mail contracts with the railroads, are the reasons the private railroads were FORCED to abandon short-haul and long-distance passenger trains, since they could not financially compete for travelers.
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As a result, the current U. S. transportation system is broken! Airlines and railroads (with the exception of Amtrak) are private, for-profit companies. Yet, private railroads have to pay for virtually everything related to their tracks, bridges, tunnels, traffic control systems, dispatching, terminals, buildings, trains and all other company operations. Airlines DO NOT PAY the billions of dollars needed to construct or maintain ANY of the hundreds of airports across the country, nor do they pay for the operation and maintenance of the FAA Flight Control System! This makes competing in the passenger transportation marketplace unequal and unfair for railroads.
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We need to either make ALL passenger travel companies pay for the own, actual costs of all operations, and financially survive on their own revenues, or, we need to subsidize ALL passenger travel companies and give every company a level playing-field in which to function. Since railroads must pay for their infrastructure, it’s time for airlines to take over the operation and maintenance of EVERY airport and the Air Traffic Control function. Once this is done, it would take the burden of subsidizing the airlines off the backs of the American taxpayers, and it again becomes financially viable for existing railroads, or new passenger train companies, to compete in the private-carrier travel market with a newly designed network of short-haul and long-distance passenger trains.
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Amtrak needs to be re-invented! When Amtrak was created in 1971, it was never intended to survive beyond a couple of years and the creators never focused on “fixing” the inequities in our broken transportation system. Amtrak doesn’t have the institutional knowledge, doesn’t have the corporate innovation and doesn’t have the financial resources to adequately create, operate and market its long-distance passenger trains! The current long-distance routes are losing money because Amtrak doesn’t have enough cars, to sell enough seats/rooms, to millions of passengers who would ride if more frequency, more space and more on-board amenities were available, to make trains a competitive travel alternative. Trains are unique in that they are the ONLY mode of travel that can add more capacity per departure! The existing Amtrak System doesn’t have the capacity to offer viable service to more riders. Thousands of potential customers are turned away daily because there is either no train at all, there is no multiple frequency of departures, or the existing trains are sold out because of lack of additional cars.
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Radical changes need to be made to bring the operation of passenger trains into the modern-day mainstream of travel options in the United States. Airlines and highways are here to stay and each have their own positive and negative attributes. The difference between the two, is that airlines are private, for-profit, stock-issuing companies, just like private railroads. It’s time airlines are FORCED to take over and pay for ALL portions of their company operations, just like railroads must pay for all of their own infrastructure and dispatching systems. Then it will be possible for short-haul and long-distance passenger trains to offer an alternative to airline and highway travel options without having to be subsidized.
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Let’s level the playing-field and treat all private transportation companies equally!
I agree with some of your points but disagree with others. The idea that Amtrak pays for all of its stations is false. It may pay for some of the larger ones in major cities but in Maine where I live none of the stations in Maine or New Hampshire are paid for by Amtrak. The taxpayers of the communities in which they are located pay for the building and maintenance of the stations. That is true of many other communities also. The airlines may not pay for the building of the airports, but they don’t land their planes for free. They pay landing fees for each flight that covers a lot of the costs. There are other user fees that cover the costs of the ATC System and TSA etc. In Maine, when the Maine Turnpike bonds were paid off the tolls remained in place and any amounts that are over and above the annual cost of road maintenance are paid to the General Fund. This is true of other interstate highways as well. I agree that all interstate highways should be toll roads. I don’t think Amtrak would fare well if all forms of transportation had to stand on their own. The LD trains are a huge drain on the system and although their subsidy may seem small compared to highway subsidies on a per passenger basis Amtrak is subsidized the most.
Dear Mr. McQuire —
(1) Please re-read my paragraphs. I never said “Amtrak pays for all of its stations”. In paragraph 2, second sentence, I said “airlines and railroads (with the EXCEPTION of Amtrak) are private, for-profit companies. Yet, private railroads have to pay……”. As I specified, Amtrak is NOT a private railroad, it is an “exception”. Therefore, I was referencing “private railroads” ONLY. So I wasn’t even talking about Amtrak.
(2) Any landing fees paid by airlines, amount to a tiny fraction of costs needed to maintain any airport, let alone the entire system or the Flight Control Network. Airlines do not pay hundreds of millions towards the billions of dollars it costs to subsidize their system. We, the taxpayers, pay it through the DOT budget as a direct subsidy.
(3) Highways are not private companies. I never compared highway costs to airline or railroad costs. I was comparing “private, for-profit, stock-issuing airlines and railroads”.
(4) I never said Amtrak would fare well if all forms of transportation had to stand on their own. I said Amtrak needs to be re-invented. Let the private railroads, or other new, private passenger train companies, or a revised form of a newly private Amtrak, pick and chose which routes or services they can financially operate, without subsidy. Or, let Amtrak die completely.
A competitive marketplace is what is needed, where ALL passenger carrying transportation companies pay for their own costs of doing business. Private airlines should not be subsidized, when private railroads are not. They should compete on a level playing-field. The current system is unequal and unfair.
I’m sorry you mis-read or misunderstood portions of my post.
“Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced.”
Is there a decoder ring available to tell me when Amtrak is “a Federal agency under the Dept of Transportation” and when it is a “quasi-public corporation managed as a for-profit organization”
I lost my decoder ring, so I’ll need to wing it. This is the best I can do: Good news comes from the federal executive branch. Bad news comes from the quasi-public corporation.
Transportation Secretary Duffy sits on the Amtrak Board of Directors, so he technically has the authority to make announcements regarding decisions by the Board, as well as financial decisions affecting changes to the Amtrak Executive Bonus Formula. Congrats to Secretary Duffy for initiating and negotiating a change to the formula system and the re-direction of the bonus money to the 18,000 workers!
Too bad all unionized workers are all getting the same amount. Some are deserving of the $900 and possibly more but there are some that deserve absolutely nothing and actually should be fired for the way they treat their passengers. It must be very discouraging for the good ones to see that the freeloaders are getting the same amount as themselves. But it is very good to see the executives who have screwed up Amtrak royally getting only 50%. Most of them deserve absolutely nothing.
Given the prevalent mechanical and acquisition failures, it is a travesty that executives earned any bonuses. Further, Secretary Duffy needs to be severely chided for calling this a “golden age of travel.”
For what it’s worth (and nothing to do with Duffy) . . .
My wife and I recently traveled from Florida to Boston on the Meteor.
Our train had two shiny new engines. We slept in a very nice new Viewliner II sleeper. We ate in a cool new Viewliner II dining car (with art deco touches and real traditional food). We transferred trains in a truly spectacular new train station in New York. We ate great food in the beautiful new Metropolitan Lounge.
It was the first time in my life that all of that was possible. So for me anyway, it was a huge improvement in taking Amtrak overall and a special “golden age” in my travel experience.