PA: Former state GOP chairman Gleason nominated for Amtrak board seat, needs to pass Senate vote

Westmont resident Robert Gleason Jr. was recently nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on the Amtrak board of directors.

Gleason’s actual appointment to the five-year term is pending approval by the U.S. Senate.

“It’s a great honor to be nominated by the president for this position,” Gleason, the former chairman of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party, said during a telephone interview this week. He deferred any additional comments until he is appointed.

If Gleason gets a spot on the board, he will help develop policy for the agency that operates more than 300 daily passenger trains on 21,000 route miles in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces.

Gleason, an Air Force veteran and former member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, has long been a proponent of increasing passenger rail service in western Pennsylvania.

Plans are in place to get a second daily round-trip Amtrak passenger train between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg operational by the end of 2026. Those trains would pass through Johnstown.

The project is slated to be funded in part by $143.6 million in Federal Railroad Administration money that was approved during Joe Biden’s presidency. However, Trump’s administration is reviewing numerous discretionary grants, including the money for the additional train in western Pennsylvania.

In an interview earlier this year before his nomination, Gleason said that he is “confident that the project will move forward.”

“My own personal opinion is that it’s not in jeopardy,” Gleason said. “But, if it is, I would not hesitate to go to President Trump and to be sure that this grant is honored.”

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