John Pearson sent a message to Joseph Boardman that said:
NYC 3 Management LLC
Middletown, Rhode Island 02842
I am the operator of a private rail car that utilizes Amtrak for the vast majority of its usage in charter operations and I am writing you at this time to commend you with regard to all of your employees that we came in contact with during a recent 5 day charter trip from Albany, NY to Pittsburgh, PA and return.
Shortly before that trip I was elected to the Board of Directors of AAPRCO and, while I am not writing to you in that capacity, I will forward my following comments to that Board so that they may appreciate the manner in which we were hosted by your organization.
Your Special Movements group, if that is the correct title, is one of the most professional and competent organizations I have had the pleasure of dealing with in my 60+ year business career. I have worked virtually with two of your employees in that group, Theresa Smith and her supervisor, Michael D' Angelo; they are sharp, customer oriented, accessible problem solvers who are fully informed on their authorities and responsibilities and, in my opinion, perform their work above and beyond normal customer expectations.
Theresa provided a PNR for our trip weeks in advance of departure, compared to days in advance in previous times; while this may not seem critically important to you given the vast range of pressures you must deal with daily from Congress, your BOD and beyond, to the charter party that has paid many thousands of dollars to charter a private rail car trip and to the car owner and operator (the baloney in the sandwich) who has arranged the trip with impeccable professionalism but does not know, when he/she puts their head on the pillow two days before the trip, if the "Amtrak monolith" is going to cancel or approve the trip, the distinction between weeks and days to them is enormously critical. Theresa and Michael have performed quickly and flawlessly to iron out the glitches and transmit the approvals for the PCMRs well in advance of the charter departure date.
Theresa, in particular, resolved, in an almost spectacular manner, other problems that cropped up during our trip and is so committed that she came down to a suburban Philadelphia station to greet and photograph our car as the train we were attached to passed by. That is true dedication to her profession (many previous employees had no idea what a "private car" was; you ought to consider, in some manner, whether stationary or under way, allowing relevant Amtrak employees to accept invites to inspect private cars).
Your special moves employees are true professionals and I would suggest, given your busy schedule, that you take a moment to meet them and commend them on their performance.
Beyond that you should know that every single Amtrak employee that we came in contact with treated us with the upmost respect and professionalism. I am not going to mention names but I think it is worth your precious time to know the wide swath of Amtrak employees in different disciplines and locations were far more accommodating, professional and just plain pleasant than, for example, their TSA or airline counterparts. The employees I complement include:
Yardmaster, Albany, NY
Mechanical and switch crew, Albany, NY
Conductors, Empire Division, between ALB and NYP
Sunnyside Yardmaster, Queens
Sunnyside Mechanical and switch crews
Conductors, NYP to PHL and Pittsburgh
Car knockers, Pittsburgh (we were there 3 days)
Probably 20+ employees in all, a wide mix of gender, race and age, all pleasantly competent.
I can tell you, as an objective outside observer with over 70 years of life experience, you have an organization that you can be proud of and very pleased with the day to day work they are performing. And they interact with more customers than you or any of your executive team.
Perhaps it is the fact that the men and women, at 2 a.m. in Sunnyside, are generally unobserved and therefore unappreciated, but as I spoke to them about watering the private car and hooking us up to electric power, they were friendly, interested, decent, competent and pleasant without exception. I heard not a single swearword from anyone (even amongst themselves) and a uniform concern to make certain we were well taken care of. That is rather unusual in this day - you can be very proud of the common man workforce you have at Amtrak; they are truly professional from the top of the organization chart to the bottom, and that is unusual.
I am going to write more emails to you in the future regarding other subjects but the highest priority is to complement the employees you manage.
I believe your future, Amtrak's future, is unappreciated, unrecognized and bright.
I will send you another email in the near future.
John Pearson
