Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, 2000s.

Joseph Boardman (1948-2019) served as the ninth president of Amtrak from 2008 to 2016. Boardman had an extensive career in transportation that spanned the private and public sectors. He served as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation and chief operating officer of Progressive Transportation Service.

Under his leadership, Amtrak debuted customer service enhancements including complimentary Wi-Fi on trains, eTicketing and the ability to travel with small pets; introduced a behavior-based safety initiative; ordered new single-level long-distance cars, electric ACS-64 locomotives and high-speed trainsets; achieved annual ridership of 30 million for the first time; advocated for new trans-Hudson River tunnels between New Jersey and New York; established four Operations business lines; achieved a 25 percent veterans hiring goal; and saw Amtrak reauthorization included as part of a federal multimodal transportation bill for the first time.

Photographer: Unknown for Amtrak. From the Amtrak Corporate Collection.