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That was the political climate facing George Warrington
when he took over as Amtrak president in 1998. There is no
doubt that during Warrington's tenure, cost cutting continued,
and as a result Amtrak service deteriorated. Nevertheless, look-
ing back it is quite remarkable that no routes were discontinued
under his tenure. George Warrington's legacy can be described
quite simply: Amtrak survived.
The climate in Washington certainly didn't improve with the
election of George W. Bush in 2000. In fact, though it hardly
seemed possible, things got worse. Bush's annual budget propos-
als continued to include painfully low funding for Amtrak—so
low that, if not for intervention by Congress, still more severe
service cuts would have been necessary.
In 2002, David Gunn was named Amtrak president. He
quickly endeared himself to Amtrak supporters for the honest
and straightforward—although sometimes blunt—manner in
which he dealt with Congress and the Bush administration. Gunn
vigorously defended federal support for Amtrak by pointing out
that every form of public transportation in the U.S. requires sub-
sidizing from one level of government or another, but that many
of these subsidies are disguised as user fees, such as the dedicated
fuel taxes that raise billions every year for the nation's highways.
Furthermore, Gunn was not shy about criticizing the Bush admin-
istration's attempts to starve Amtrak with budget proposals that
would have forced more and more cuts. Gunn predictably paid
the price for his vigorous defense of Amtrak: he was fired by
the Bush appointees on Amtrak's board of directors in 2005, a
move that devastated and demoralized many of Amtrak's long-
suffering management people.
Things seemed to be changing for the better in 2006 when the
Democrats regained control of Congress and again in 2008 when
Barack Obama was elected president. That same year, Amtrak
got a new president: Alex Kummant came to Amtrak after having
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