Monday, December 05, 2005
Paul Weyrich's Group Hires Former Amtrak President
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 3:31 p.m. EST
Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 3:31 p.m. EST
Paul Weyrich's Group Hires Former Amtrak President
Recently terminated Amtrak President David L. Gunn has accepted a position as an adjunct scholar with the conservative Free Congress Foundation, Chairman Paul M. Weyrich announced today.
The Foundation is one of the few conservative public policy institutes that favors public transportation, especially rail. Weyrich is a former member of Amtrak’s Board of Directors and also of the Amtrak Reform Council.
In announcing David Gunn’s new position with Free Congress, Weyrich said, "David Gunn was the best President Amtrak had in a long time. His firing, which was engineered by the White House, was a travesty. It suggests that the current Administration is out not to reform Amtrak but to destroy passenger trains in this country.”
As a Free Congress adjunct scholar, Mr. Gunn will contribute to the Foundation’s ongoing series of monographs on conservatives and public transportation. "Not only was David Gunn an outstanding President of Amtrak, he has a long and distinguished record of service in the field of rail transit,” Weyrich said.
Among Mr. Gunn’s previous positions were General Manager of the Washington Metro from 1991 to 1994 and head of the New York subway system from 1984 to 1990. Mr. Gunn has been credited by many observers for saving New York’s subways from a catastrophic decline.
"Free Congress Foundation intends to make David Gunn’s unique expertise on both urban and interurban rail passenger service available to Washington policy-makers, especially conservatives,” Weyrich said. "Conservatives need to understand how passenger trains, subways and streetcars can serve important conservative goals, such as increasing property values and reducing our country’s dependence on vulnerable Middle East oil supplies. No one understands this subject better than David Gunn.”
David Gunn holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard and served in the United States Navy Reserve from 1959-1962.
