Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Responding to congressional pressure, the Amtrak board
replaced Lewis with Paul Reistrup. He was a railroader, all right,
but he proved to be artless when it came to dealing with the poli-
ticians. After a three-and-a-half-year hitch, he was replaced by
Alan Boyd. And, yes, once again Amtrak found itself with a non-
railroad man as its president. But Boyd had been the country's
very first secretary of transportation and was the consummate
Washington insider. Despite Reagan's policy of benign neglect
toward Amtrak, Boyd managed to bring about a kind of political
stability among the various players during his four-year tenure.
The timing for Amtrak's top leadership somehow always
seemed to be wrong: When circumstances cried out for some-
one with operational know-how, they got a politician. When they
needed someone who could talk turkey with the power brokers
on Capitol Hill, they got a hard-nosed railroader. Fortunately for
Amtrak, Graham Claytor became the company's fourth president
in the summer of 1982.
The Cavalry Arrives Just in Time
First and foremost, W. Graham Claytor Jr. was a railroad man.
On every Amtrak trip he took, he was known to “walk the train”
relentlessly, looking for the smallest out-of-place detail. But Clay-
tor also proved to be a skilled politician. Already respected by
his peers, he soon came to be viewed in the same way by mem-
bers of Congress as well. Many of them felt a good deal more
comfortable about continuing federal support for Amtrak with
the no-nonsense former president of Southern Railway in charge.
Unlike most of his predecessors, Claytor was able to speak from
experience and with authority. Happily, under Claytor's leader-
ship, Amtrak actually began to deliver.
Claytor began a shape-up program at Amtrak that would
continue all through the 1980s. Training improved for employ-
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