mr. boardman and others. the plan that was devised takes amtrak and organizes it into six business lines, a vice president or manager of business, and we'll see how that has come to pass and how that organization is -- reorganization is proceeding. and the purpose of that is to establish performance goals that are outlined in the strategic plan so that profits and losses can be addressed, and also accounted for. past amtrak managers have not, unfortunately, been held accountable for what's happened in their departments, and that's not my evaluation, it's the evaluation of several of these studies. also in the past, there have been amtrak attempted reorganizations without clear goals, unfortunately. i hope to better understand amtrak's strategic plans, its corporate goals, and specific progress on its reorganization. and also learn how it will improve performance, accountability, and cost savings. i approach this hearing with a very open mind. amtrak's strategic plan is very important. i know it requires a tra

mr. boardman, our amtrak ceo, you're recognized. welcome back. >> thank you, mr. mica, and thank you for your service. one of the other things i'd like to thank you about is that you've put a focus on this corridor, and i appreciate that. we put a vision out in september 2010, and by january you began to have a hearing. by february of that year, and i'd just like to summarize quickly because i know you want to move through here quickly, we proposed the gateway project to support that vision in high-speed rail. in march we named the u.s. d.o.t. named us as a federal corridor. by may we were awarded $450 million to improve the speed in new jersey on what we call a raceway. by june we were in a situation where we had a peer review by our european and asian high-speed rail operators validating our proposal of next generation high-speed rail. in august we began a business and financial plan with kpmg to understand how we can work the private sector in, how the public/private partnerships might work many that process. in november the board approved the amtrak strategic

mr. boardman on this. the introduction of the service itself in 2,000,, i think the air rail split was something like 30/70 or 40/60 and then it flipped it's now 75/25. theover whemming number of people going between washington d.c. and new york prefer to take the train and it's not because it's always cheaper because the service is not. it's because of the time savings and the convenience. >> mr. boardman, for the northeast corridor 85% of the population live within 25 miles of the northeast corridor making it very accessible. how would you compare that to california? >> one thing i would say is that the air rail service between san diego and l.a. is entirely rail because it doesn't work the way that -- as close as they are to each other and the way it operates. but when you get l.a. to san fransisco you only have to cost starlight so there isn't a sufficient amount of data that would tell you what would really happen here. so from that regard, the old train -- and i can't remember right now what they cal

mr. boardman on this. the introduction of the service itself in 2000, i think the air rail split with something like 3070, or 4060, and then it flips. it's now 75-25. you know, the overwhelming number of people going between washington, d.c. and new york prefer to take the train. it's not because that is always cheaper. because the service is not. it's because of the time savings and convenience. >> mr. boardman, for the northeast corridor, 80% of the population lives within 25 miles of the northeast corridor making the rail very, very accessible. how would you compare that with california? >> depends on the part of california. one of the things i can answer is, congressman, is that the air rail service between san diego and l.a. is entirely real because it just doesn't work the way that that has, as close as the arts which have and the way that it operates. but when you get to something like l.a. to san francisco you really only have the coast starlight. so there's a sufficient amount of data that would r