Stephen Gardner | |
|---|---|
 Gardner in 2023 | |
| Born | December 31, 1975 Arlington, Virginia, US |
| Alma mater | Hampshire College (BA) |
| Known for | CEO of Amtrak |
| 13th CEO of Amtrak | |
| Assumed office January 17, 2022 | |
| Preceded by | William J. Flynn |
Stephen J. Gardner (born December 31,1975) [1] is an American transportation executive and musician who is the chief executive officer of Amtrak.
Gardner was born and raised in Arlington,Virginia. His father was Arlington's county manager. [1]
He went to high school at H-B Woodlawn. [1] [2] As an 18-year-old,he interned for Amtrak at Washington Union Station,measuring train speeds and checking conductor logs. [3]
Gardner attended Hampshire College,studying physics,acoustics,political science,and transportation and graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1998. [4]
After college,Gardner moved to Maine to work as a conductor and operations manager for the Maine Central Railroad. In 2001,he began an internship for the House Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads,later working as a legislative assistant and staffer for the Senate Committee on Commerce,Science,and Transportation. [1] [2] [5]
He joined Amtrak in 2009,serving as its chief operating and commercial officer beginning in May 2019. [5] [6] He was named the organization's president in December 2020. [7]
He became Amtrak's CEO on January 17,2022,serving jointly as president and CEO until Roger Harris was named to the former role six months later. [2] [8] He oversaw an infusion of $22 billion in direct federal aid to repair and replace tracks and trains,as well as $44 billion in grants intended to improve U.S. passenger rail service,provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. [9] Among his initial priorities for the new funds was to pay off a $3.4 billion order for 73 additional trains constructed by Siemens Mobility. [3]
The New York Times reported in August 2022 that Gardner had received more than $766,000 in bonuses from Amtrak since 2016. [10]
Gardner testified to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on June 6,2023 that Amtrak was at least five years from profitability,both because of the COVID-19 pandemic and because it was pursuing capital investments funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law. [11]
In September 2023,Gardner advocated to have Amtrak take control of Washington Union Station,noting the organization intended to make station improvements and return its headquarters to the building. [12]
Gardner became enmeshed in the DC punk scene as a teenager and played bass for the band Lorelei. [1]
In 1994,he formed the experimental music group Chessie,named after the defunct Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Gardner wrote that the project aimed to explore "the way that railroads bisect the natural world with machinery." [13] Chessie's music employs tape loops featuring guitar and keyboards in addition to recorded samples. Although the band's aesthetic is inspired by railroads,Gardner told the Washington City Paper the band has never sampled a train,because "that's cheating." [14]
The band's debut album "Signal Series" was named Amazon's best Dance and DJ album for 1998. [13]
Gardner lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two children. [6]
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation,doing business as Amtrak,is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words America and track.
Pennsylvania Station is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere,serving more than 600,000 passengers per weekday as of 2019. The station is located beneath Madison Square Garden in the block bounded by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets and in the James A. Farley Building,with additional exits to nearby streets,in Midtown Manhattan. It is close to several popular Manhattan locations,including Herald Square,the Empire State Building,Koreatown,and Macy's Herald Square.
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak,it runs from Boston in the north to Washington,D.C.,in the south,with major stops in Providence,New Haven,Stamford,New York City,Newark,Trenton,Philadelphia,Wilmington,and Baltimore. The NEC is roughly paralleled by Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day,it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.
The Northeast Regional is an intercity rail service operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. In the past it has been known as the NortheastDirect,Acela Regional,or Regional. It is Amtrak's busiest route,carrying 9,163,082 passengers in fiscal year (FY) 2023. The Northeast Regional service received more than $787.7 million in gross ticket revenue in FY 2023.
Virginia Railway Express (VRE) is a commuter rail service that connects outlying small cities of Northern Virginia to Washington Union Station in Washington,D.C. It operates two lines which run during weekday rush hour only:the Fredericksburg Line from Spotsylvania,Virginia,and the Manassas Line from Broad Run station in Bristow,Virginia. In 2023,the system had a ridership of 1,537,000,or about 6,300 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024.
The Crescent is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and New Orleans. The 1,377-mile (2,216 km) route connects the Northeast to the Gulf Coast via the Appalachian Piedmont,with major stops in Charlotte,North Carolina;Atlanta,Georgia;and Birmingham,Alabama.
The Coast Starlight is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train,which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formation in 1971,was the first to offer direct service between Seattle and Los Angeles. Its name is a combination of two prior Southern Pacific (SP) trains,the Coast Daylight and the Starlight.
The Cardinal is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York Penn Station and Chicago Union Station via Philadelphia,Washington,D.C.,Charlottesville,Charleston,Huntington,Cincinnati,and Indianapolis. Along with the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited,it is one of three trains linking the Northeast and Chicago. The 1,146-mile (1,844 km) trip between New York and Chicago is scheduled for 281⁄4 hours.
CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America,among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger. The various railroads of the former Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries that are now owned by CSX Corporation were eventually merged into a single line in 1986 and it became known as CSX Transportation. CSX Corporation currently has a number of subsidiaries beyond CSX Transportation. Previously based in Richmond,Virginia after the merger,the corporation moved its headquarters to Jacksonville,Florida,in 2003. CSX is a Fortune 500 company.
The Southeast Corridor (SEC) is a proposed passenger rail transportation project in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States to extend high-speed passenger rail services from the current southern terminus of the Northeast Corridor in Washington,D.C. Routes would extend south via Richmond and Petersburg,Virginia,with a spur to Norfolk in Virginia's Hampton Roads region;the mainline would continue south to Raleigh,Durham,Greensboro,and Charlotte,North Carolina. Since the corridor was first established in 1992,the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has extended it further to Atlanta and Macon,Georgia;Greenville and Columbia,South Carolina;Jacksonville,Florida;and Birmingham,Alabama.
Plans for high-speed rail in the United States date back to the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965. Various state and federal proposals have followed. Despite being one of the world's first countries to get high-speed trains,it failed to spread. Definitions of what constitutes high-speed rail vary,including a range of speeds over 110 mph (180 km/h) and dedicated rail lines. Inter-city rail with top speeds between 90 and 125 mph is sometimes referred to in the United States as higher-speed rail.
The Baltimore–Washington Superconducting Maglev Project (SCMAGLEV) is a proposed project connecting the United States cities of Baltimore,Maryland,and Washington,D.C.,with a 40 miles (64 km) maglev train system between their respective central business districts. It is the first segment of the planned Washington-New York Northeast Maglev project. The maglev proposal is not related to the Baltimore–Washington hyperloop proposed by the Boring Company.
Union Station is a railway station located at Washington Square in downtown Worcester,Massachusetts. It is the western terminus of the MBTA Commuter Rail Framingham/Worcester Line and a stop for the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited service. A bus terminal adjacent to the station is the hub for Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) local bus service;it is also used by PVTA,MART,Peter Pan,and Greyhound intercity buses.
The National Limited was a passenger train that ran between Kansas City,Missouri,and both New York City and Washington,D.C.,splitting in Pennsylvania. Amtrak operated the train from 1971 to 1979.
The Gateway Program is a ongoing expansion and renovation of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) rail line between Newark,New Jersey,and New York City along the right-of-way between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station. The project is intended to build new rail bridges in the New Jersey Meadowlands,dig a new set of tunnels under Bergen Hill and the Hudson River,rehabilitate the existing 1910 tunnel,and construct a new terminal annex. The improvements are designed to double train capacity and permit more high-speed rail service along the current right-of-way,whose two-track rail line,used both by Amtrak and NJ Transit Rail Operations (NJT),has reached its full capacity of 24 trains per hour.
Chessie is an American experimental music group consisting of Stephen Gardner and Ben Bailes.
Amtrak Virginia is the collective name for Virginia's state-supported Amtrak train service,all of which falls under the Northeast Regional brand. Amtrak Virginia trains run between Washington,D.C.,and one of four southern termini:Richmond,Newport News,Norfolk,or Roanoke. Trains generally continue north from D.C. along the Northeast Corridor,providing one-seat rides from Virginia to Baltimore,Philadelphia,New York City,and Boston.
Avelia Liberty is a tilting high-speed passenger train built for the North American market by French manufacturer Alstom and assembled in the United States. Amtrak has ordered 28 train sets for use on its flagship Acela service along the Northeast Corridor between Boston,New York,and Washington,promising higher frequency and capacity than the first-generation Acela.
On December 18,2017,Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 derailed near DuPont,Washington,United States. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) final report said regional transit authority Sound Transit failed to take steps to mitigate a curve at the accident location,and inadequately trained the train engineer. The train was making the inaugural run of the Point Defiance Bypass,a new passenger rail route south of Tacoma,Washington,operated by Amtrak in partnership with state and local authorities in Oregon and Washington,on right-of-way owned and operated by Sound Transit. The bypass was intended to reduce congestion and separate passenger and freight traffic,and was designed for faster speeds and shorter travel times,saving ten minutes from Seattle to Portland compared with the previous route used by Cascades.
Siemens Venture is a type of locomotive-hauled passenger railroad car built by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. The cars are derived from the Siemens Viaggio Comfort cars used in Europe,with adaptations for North American operations. The cars entered service with Brightline in 2018 and with Amtrak Midwest in 2022. They have also been ordered by Amtrak for national and other state-supported routes,Via Rail,and Ontario Northland. The Venture cars will also be used on Amtrak’s Airo trainsets.