Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
7
The success of any company, whether it's a manufacturing firm or
a railroad, depends on its employees and how well they perform
their jobs. When Amtrak came into existence in 1971, it inherited
thousands of employees from private railroads. Along with all
those new people came a kind of compendium of pecking orders,
systems, and procedures that somehow had to be forged into one
way of doing things. In many respects it didn't work out very
well; change for the better took years.
Amtrak has reorganized its systems over the years and intro-
duced newer and better management techniques. Happily, that
has included the granting of more authority to frontline employ-
ees. Today, at least in theory, key members of the onboard crew
can take action on the spot to rectify most problems.
A Word About Race and Gender
Although there are no doubt inequities remaining in some areas,
Amtrak has rather consistently demonstrated a progressive
approach to the problem of discrimination by race or gender. The
most obvious example is that of train attendant. In the days of
the Pullman porter, these jobs were limited to black males. Today,
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