By Frank N. Wilner

n effective political device is to accuse agents of change of unwittingly advocating a repugnant social outcome. Some have suggested that, were Amtrak forced to accept reforms essential to private-sector business survival, we would witness the end of the American passenger train.

Such a response could have been made by Amtrak's board of directors and senior management after the congressionally-created Amtrak Reform Council last month issued its first assessment of the 29-year-old, government-owned, heavily subsidized passenger carrier. The ARC-perceived by some as an intrusive shadow board-said that Amtrak management is ineffective, financial statements are clothed in smoke and mirrors, and labor productivity is lagging.

But rather than attack the messenger or deny the message, Amtrak Chairman and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson reacted calmly, accentuated the positive, and demonstrated why he is Amtrak's most precious asset. Rudyard Kipling said it best, even though he had another Tommy in mind: "For it's Tommy this an' Tommy that an' check 'im out, the brute! But it's savior of 'is country, when the guns begin to shoot."

Thompson offered a studied response to the ARC report's condemnations, graciously assuring the ARC that many of its recommendations, such as better identifying risks and alternative strategies and making the profitable Mail & Express operation a stand-alone business unit, have merit.

Thompson also convinced the ARC to retreat from a draft-report desire that Amtrak divest itself of maintaining and dispatching the federally-owned Northeast Corridor. "We are the only entity that in a sense holds this vital artery together," said Thompson, explaining that only Amtrak operates along its entire length between Washington, D.C., and Boston and is the only railroad authorized to operate faster than 110 mph.

The ARC's members largely reflect the politics of House and Senate Republicans hostile to government ownership, yet reluctant themselves to cut the railroad's funding or eliminate routes. Lawmakers have deputized others to undress, observe, poke, pinch, and prod Amtrak as if it were a guinea-pig patient at the mercy of a class of medical students. Since 1995, there have been nearly 20 oversight hearings by five different congressional committees, nearly 12 reviews by the General Accounting Office, two reports by the Department of Transportation's inspector general, and separate inquiries by congressional staff investigators and a congressionally created "Blue Ribbon Commission." No private sector firm could function efficiently with such federal meddling.

Yes, Congress expects Amtrak to cover its operating costs from the farebox by September 2002. But if Amtrak, with the permission of Congress, bends traditional accounting rules slightly so some maintenance costs and equipment depreciation are excluded from calculations for the goal to be met, it seems more reasonable that the ARC should rejoice in the progress. Voters want Amtrak's 22,000-mile, 45-state, 530-station national passenger train network expanded. To the credit of Amtrak's board and senior management, they have embarked on a politically-risky mission of a market-based network analysis to identify routes making no economic sense.

Although the ARC criticizes stagnant ridership, it makes no recommendation on how Amtrak might better compete with subsidized airlines engaging in predatory pricing or highway driving where gasoline taxes don't reflect the full costs of government-funded highways, police presence, or military defense of petroleum shipping lanes.

And whether Amtrak failed to negotiate the "best" labor agreements, ARC cannot say. As National Mediation Board member Frank Duggan said, "The best solution to any problem is what the parties agree to." It may be so that Amtrak workers earn more than counterparts at non-union commuter airlines or those in the motor coach industry, but they also earn less and work under fewer work-rule restrictions than unionized employees of commuter and freight railroads. As Deputy Federal Railroad Administrator Jack Wells once inquired, "Do we want Amtrak to precipitate a battle with its unions that will shut the railroad down?"

Again to quote from Kipling, objectives are best achieved "if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you." Keeping their heads and staying the course are precisely what the Amtrak board and its senior management are doing. They deserve more credit than was accorded by the ARC.