The CEO of Amtrak has resigned from his post just months after the passenger rail service recorded its best single-year ridership in its history.
Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner announced the move Wednesday, saying he was proud of what his team at Amtrak had accomplished in his 16 years at the helm, bringing more passenger rail service to places across the country.
“We did a lot together to make Amtrak safer, more modern, and a better travel experience for all our customers,” Gardner said. “It has been my honor and privilege to lead this great American company, and I wish Amtrak every success.”
Gardner did not specify why he was leaving, but said the decision was made in order to ensure that the rail system “enjoy[s] the full faith and confidence of this administration.”
Amtrak has faced renewed criticism from President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Trump’s de facto primary advisor Elon Musk, who has floated the idea of privatizing the passenger rail system.
“I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” Musk said during a speech at a conference for investment banking firm Morgan Stanley. “I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak.”
Musk has long been critical of public transportation systems in the U.S., including the California High-Speed Rail which he allegedly admitted he actively tried to prevent being built through the promise of his own “hyperloop” technology.
As an owner of the most valuable car manufacturer in the world, and whose electric vehicles are among the chief selling points for environmental conscious consumers, many critics of Musk have theorized that he has a vested interest in seeing competing modes of clean transportation fail.
Amtrak, for its part, responded to calls for privatization, pushing back on the assertion that it would lead to better efficiency or lower costs.
“A private entity would face the same constraints as Amtrak, but it would lack Amtrak’s essential statutory right to operate over the national rail network,” officials wrote in a document highlighting the pros and cons of privatization.
Amtrak highlighted similar efforts in places across the globe, particularly in Great Britain where prices went up and safety did not improve at a meaningful level. It also noted that a private entity would still require a substantial amount of federal support in order to give the nation “the passenger rail system it needs.”
Many industry experts have accused the Trump Administration of pushing Gardner out of the top spot at Amtrak in order to have someone more aligned with the President’s vision.
In his previous term, Trump made efforts to cut funding to Amtrak; his successor, President Joe Biden, was among the biggest and most well-known supporters of the system, awarding it billions in federal grant funding to improve and expand service.
Duffy and the Department of Transportation has threatened to pull federal funding from several transportation projects and systems across the country, including Amtrak, California High-Speed Rail and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York.
Performance is not believed to be a factor in the decision for Gardner to step down, as Amtrak reported major breakthroughs for the passenger rail system in the last several years, including breaking its all-time ridership record in the 2024 fiscal year. Amtrak had a total operating revenue of $3.6 billion during that time frame, a 7% year-over-year increase.
However Amtrak, which is a for-profit entity, has struggled to consistently pay for its needs, usually relying on government support to keep the lights on. But, like the United States Postal Service, supporters say it offers critical services to Americans that are worth maintaining and funding.
