Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Friday that 18,000 Amtrak employees will receive a $900 bonus this holiday season. (Credit: @SecDuffy via X)
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced Thursday that it has helped turn “exorbitant” top executive payouts at Amtrak — implemented under the Biden administration — into $900 bonuses for more than 18,000 frontline workers.
The DOT said it has reached an agreement with Amtrak’s management and board of directors to shift roughly half of leadership bonuses to Amtrak’s unionized frontline employees this holiday season, recognizing what officials described as a “record year” for ridership and revenue.
“At the insistence of the Trump administration, year-end bonuses will now go to 18,000 frontline workers, rather than being limited to the executive ranks,” Mark Wallace, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said in a statement.
“This long-awaited recognition of the employees who keep the railroad moving is a step in the right direction.”
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Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that Amtrak employees will receive a $900 bonus this holiday season. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In one post on X On Friday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reiterated the announcement, noting that “Christmas is coming a little early” for the 18,000 Amtrak employees receiving the bonuses.
“The Trump administration is delivering LOWER COSTS and BIGGER PAYMENTS,” Duffy said.
The move follows the Trump administration’s pressure on Amtrak’s executive leadership team to forfeit half of the bonuses they would have received under what the DOT described as “misplaced priorities.”
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An Amtrak dining car in Lamy, NM (Robert Alexander/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“Under the Trump administration [DOT] uncovered Biden-Buttigieg-era bonus structures for Amtrak’s executive team, resulting in exorbitant payouts for senior staff,” the agency said. “Under Secretary Duffy, [DOT] will restructure these levels to be more competitive and ensure employees are rewarded appropriately.”
Earlier this year, Duffy similarly criticized the Biden administration, particularly former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for leaving an “unprecedented backlog” in improving the safety of critical infrastructure across the country.
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Pete Buttigieg speaks during a press conference in Chicago. (Taylor Glascock/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Buttigieg, a 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, dismissed the DOT’s criticism as “nonsense” at the time.
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Fox Business has reached out to Buttigieg and former President Biden for comment.
