Amtrak CEO leaves amid threat of pullback on transport funds

Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner announced Wednesday that he would quit his job after the Trump administration threatened to pull back funding for mass and transport projects across the country.

“I am resigning as CEO to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration,” Gardner, head of the country’s passenger rail company, said in a statement. His successor has not yet been made public.

Gardner’s departure comes when President Donald Trump and U.S. Department of Transport Sean Duffy send shockwaves through transport that threaten to pull federal funds from major projects if they are not complying with new regulations. Obligation. The White House is currently trying to stop its New York City crowd pricing plans, and Duffy recently began reviewing the California high-speed rail project.

Amtrak is a for-profit company with several ties to the federal government. The company’s board members are generally appointed by the president, with the Secretary of Transport winning one seat.

The company has become the focus of lawmakers’ scrutiny on uneven transport services. Former President Joe Biden pledged billions of dollars to the Northeast Corridor, run primarily by Amtrak, funding infrastructure repairs and facilitating the service issues that plagued the system. Meanwhile, Trump and House Republicans have proposed to slice Amtrak’s federal grants about halfway through his first term.

Trump’s right-hand man and de facto director of the government’s Department of Efficiency, Elon Musk is thinking about privatizing Amtrak and claims that rail services pale compared to other countries’ high-speed rail systems.

Since Trump came to power, leadership changes have taken over transport across the country. New Jersey Transit CEO Kevin Corbett and Chicago Transit Authority Head Doval Carter resigned from their respective positions in January.

Gardner has been the head of the US passenger rail since 2022. He started out as an intern at a company 16 years ago, according to a statement.

“We look forward to working with President Trump and Secretary Duffy in building a world-class passenger rail system worthy of this country,” the Amtrak board wrote in a statement on the transition.

This story was originally introduced Fortune.com