Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner is stepping down from his position to “to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration,” he announced in a statement.
The decision comes as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk said he believes the US Postal Service and Amtrak need to be privatized.
Gardner, who was appointed as CEO in 2022, said in his statement Wednesday that he had been working at Amtrak for 16 years. He was the 13th executive to lead Amtrak since it was created in 1971.
“We look forward to working with President Trump and Secretary Duffy as we build the world-class passenger rail system this country deserves,” the Amtrak board said in a statement Wednesday.
Trump ally Musk had mused about the state of US passenger rail at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom conference in this month, saying that it was “kind of embarrassing” how other countries have “way better passenger rail than we do” and that “Amtrak is a sad situation.”
“I think we should privatize anything that can be privatized, just so you’ve got a feedback loop for improvement, is what happens when something’s privatized,” Musk continued. “Basically something’s got to have some chance of going bankrupt or there’s not a good feedback loop for improvement.”
