Amtrak’s Gateway Program to speed Northeast Corridor trains through an aging Hudson River bottleneck is poised for huge progress, but a report by the government-owned passenger railroad’s internal watchdog calls into question its ability to efficiently and effectively implement the $30 billion plan.
The report, released Tuesday, finds that while the company has begun hiring staff and building a schedule to manage the project, it hasn’t “fully developed a thorough program management framework that describes the processes its departments will follow and the tools they will use to manage the program now and in the years ahead.”
“Given the enormity of the company’s commitments over the next decade and the fact that major projects are already underway, the company has an opportunity now to build this framework to better prepare itself to succeed with the program,” Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General wrote in the report.
