OIG: Amtrak should improve Gateway program management

Amtrak has started hiring staff and building a schedule to manage the volume of work it will soon encounter on the Gateway program, but it has yet to develop a comprehensive program management framework to successfully manage its commitments, according to the Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The Gateway program involves rail infrastructure projects designed to improve the most congested 10-mile section of the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak’s highest priority infrastructure investment, the program is aimed at improving resiliency and creating the capacity for doubling passenger trains that travel under the Hudson River into Penn Station in New York City.

Given the enormity of the company’s commitments over the next decade, and the fact that major projects are already underway, the OIG noted in a report released this week that Amtrak has an opportunity now to build the necessary management framework to better prepare itself to succeed with Gateway projects.

For example, the program management plan the company issued in 2021 does not contain necessary details that company and industry standards call for, the report said. Specifically, a program management plan should include details on how a company plans to manage, monitor, and control a program. The OIG found that the company’s program management plan provided generic descriptions of participating departments instead of detailed plans identifying and describing how it will perform its work.

Without a detailed program management plan, the company risks managing its workflow in an ad hoc way that reacts to issues and demands as they arise instead of in a disciplined manner, the OIG said in a press release.

To read the OIG report, click here.