WASHINGTON (AP) — America's railroad is turning to an airline industry veteran to lead it through a summer of reckoning for congested tracks and crumbling infrastructure.
Amtrak on Monday named former Delta Air Lines chairman Richard Anderson as its new president and CEO.
He'll take charge of the government-owned railroad on July 12 as it rushes to address years of deferred maintenance at New York's Penn Station.
The project, hastened by recent derailments and rush-hour snarls, will disrupt and delay millions of commuters at Amtrak's busiest station.
Amtrak says Anderson and current president and CEO Charles "Wick" Moorman will be co-CEOs through the end of 2017.
That's when Moorman will become an adviser to Amtrak.
Anderson was CEO of Northwest Airlines from 2001 to 2004 and CEO of Delta from 2007 to 2016.