Case Study:
Amtrak Power Outage on Eastern Corridor 2006

Challenge
To provide a nationwide operating organization the structure to plan practice and rehearse adverse situations to their normal operating procedures.

Introduction
Amtrak as an entity has been under scrutiny and criticism since it’s inception in the early 1970’s. They face multi challenges as an organization including steep competition from road and air passenger transport. This situation has created a lot of funding and operational issues for Amtrak in its key market’s nationwide. On the 25th of May 2006, the Northeast corridor rail line from Washington DC to Boston experienced a major Amtrak responsible power outage, stranding thousands of Amtrak Services commuters, as well as thousands of commuters from other train service networks that pay Amtrak fess for the use of this rail corridor. It became apparent to all affected parties, that although this situation does occur on occasion, there were no contingency plans in place. Amtrak already has a bad reputation in service and customer service providing; when high probability situations like this one arise you need to have an efficient executable plan in place to get your services running normal immediately. The damage to the Amtrak brand name on this day was very significant, due to the fact that commuters recognized that there was no plan or effort to right the situation

Stakeholders
Executive Management, Industry Partners, Customers, Shareholders, Local Government Infrastructures (roads, communications, power grid), Media (local and national), Power Providers, Emergency Service Providers.

Strategy/Process
Strategic planning and operational integration between all the key stakeholders is needed to prevent and counteract situations like these. It is imperative for Amtrak to constantly evaluate and improve their operating procedures. Individual departments operating procedures and effective communication practices have to exist and be utilized. The interdepartmental integration process within Amtrak has to work. Once the Rhiannon Group has helped Amtrak attain this, it can then help create a classification integration plan for Amtrak to implement with its external operational partners. The last stage of our process is a constant evaluation and education structure available to all personnel to persistently practice their performance and decision making abilities. Table tops, simulations, and operational walkthroughs will emphasis good business practice throughout all operations and will become a part of the Amtrak employee thinking. The result of this type of Rhiannon Group initiative will be greater operational capabilities, confidence within the organizational structure, and readiness to deal with any and all situation when they arise.

Result/Conclusion
Executive management, employees, partner firms, customers and all other affected stakeholders can see that the plans and attitudes are in place to deal with all situations. Confidence and satisfaction flows freely with the operational structure, which will then lead to the Brand Name and customer satisfaction ratings to greatly improve. This all leads to a more competitive, efficient and cost effective product.