September 2019 Amtrak Financial Report

  • The NEC generated for the year a cash operating surplus of $541.8 million (at least by their idea of a fully allocated accounting system) and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $571.6 million. Combined the entire system has a cash operating loss of $29.8 million. For the fiscal year to date, the NEC made debt service payments of $174.6 million and capital expenditures of $791 million. Having received Federal Grants of $676 million it has a remaining carryover balance of $469.9 million (plus the money from FY2018). The National Network Account made debt service of $38 million and capital investments of $814 million and have received from the Federal Government $1,570.9 million and retains $291.7 million plus the carryover balance from FY2018.

  • Capital Spending for the year was: Infrastructure $646.1 million, Stations & Real Estate $138.8 million, Fleet Maintenance $328.8 million, Fleet Acquisition $158.2 million , Information Technology $110.6 million, ADA $77.8 million (for the first time actually meeting the Congressional Mandate of expending at least $50 million on ADA), Support $12.9 million, Gateway $36.9 million ($1.6 million in September alone), and Avila (Acela 2) $56.5 million. For total capital expenditures of $1,605 million ($143.1 million more than FY2018). The Fleet Acquisition would include the down payments for the new locomotives plus the purchase of some more Viewliner Equipment from CAF.

  • The GAAP loss for the year appears to be $874.8 million. The adjusted operating earnings were $140.9 million better than FY2018 .

  • The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus was 9 plus 2 dubious ones :

    • Acela $334.3 million

    • Northeast Regionals $237.6 million

    • Washington-Newport News $5.4 million

    • Washington-Lynchburg $4.2 million

    • Carolinian $3.9 million

    • Washington-Norfolk $1.5 million

    • Washington-Richmond $1.2 million

    • Vermonter $0.8 million

    • Illini  $0.5 million

    • The two dubious ones were the adjustments to Long Distance of $1.9 million and Non-NEC Special Trains and Adjustments of $3.9 million. In both cases they showed negative costs to operate. This could be an accounting error where the costs were a positive number, or a deliberate attempt to make the non-NEC activities look worse. In the case of Special Trains and Adjustments to NEC, the operating costs were a positive number, thus reducing the shared costs of operating the Acela and Regional Trains. 

    • The four Virginia product lines generated a total of $12.3 million in operating surpluses.

  • Ridership for the year was more than 802,600 greater than in FY2018. For the year, Amtrak carried 32,521,200 (Amtrak rounds to the nearest hundred).

    • Long Distance Ridership

    • Silver Star- 390.0 Thousand vs 368.5 Thousand  +5.8%

    • Cardinal- 108.9 Thousand vs 96.7 Thousand +12.6%

    • Silver Meteor- 353.5 Thousand vs 337.0 Thousand  +1.1%

    • Empire Builder- 433.4 Thousand vs 428.9 Thousand  +0.1%

    • Capitol LTD- 209.6 Thousand vs 219.0 Thousand  -4.3%

    • California Zephyr- 410.8 Thousand vs 18.2 Thousand  -1.7%

    • Southwest Chief- 338.2 Thousand vs 331.2 Thousand  +2.1%

    • City of New Orleans- 235.7 Thousand vs 237.8 Thousand  -0.9%

    • Texas Eagle- 321.7 Thousand vs 335.8 Thousand  -4.2%

    • Sunset Ltd.- 92.8 Thousand vs 97.1 Thousand  -4.4%

    • Coast Starlight- 426.0 Thousand vs 417.8 Thousand  +2.0%

    • Lake Shore LTD- 357.7 Thousand vs 337.9 Thousand  +5.9%

    • Palmetto- 345.3 Thousand vs 387.9 Thousand -11.0%

    • Crescent- 295.3 Thousand vs 274.8 Thousand  +7.5%

  • Congress sent to the President (which he signed) a Continuing Resolution funding the Government through December 20, 2019. It looks like the house deleted the four budget bills contained in the minibus HR3055, extended the Continual Resolution, extended a number of programs that expired on November 21, 2019 to December 20, 2019 and contained one legislative change added to the former minibus which eliminated a mandated reduction in Highway Funds that would occur towards the end of FY2020.

  • The two CRs that have been passed and signed by the President mean that the following funds have been appropriated for Amtrak for 81 days out of 366 days in FY2020:

    • NEC:  $143,852,459

    • NATIONAL SYSTEM: $285,845,901.60

    • CRISI: $56,534,426.22

    • STATE OF GOOD REPAIR: $88,524,590.16

    • RESTORATION & ENHANCEMENT: $1,106,557.38

    • BUILD GRANTS: $199,180,327.80

    • AMTRAK IG: $5,150,803.28

    • WASHINGTON METRO: $33,196,721.31

    • And wasted on Maglev; $2,213,114.75

 

Steve Musen

Representative to NARP’s Council of Representatives from the state of Rhode Island

Info
Written by RIARP.org On In Tagged , , ,