June was about the same as May. Ridership in June was down slightly, probably affected by the spikes in Texas, Florida, Arizona and California in the 2nd half of the month.
The report was dated July 27, 2020 and posted no later than July 28, 2020.
The NEC generated for the first nine months a cash operating surplus of $105.4 million and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $545.6 million. Combined, the entire system had for the first nine months a cash operating deficit of $440.2 million.
For the fiscal year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $162.9 million and capital expenditures of $846.1 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $833.7 million plus the cash reserves from FY2018 and FY2019.
For the rest of the National System, only $26.3 million was needed for Debt service and $542.4 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $954.0 million. Keep in mind that a large surplus was built up in FY2018 and FY2019 and not included in this amount. Again with most state supported trains suspended for the near term, and only the long distance trains running, we can expect rather large deficits to occur in what remains of the National Network.
Amtrak had a cash balance of approximately $2,487,304,000 at the beginning of Fiscal 2020. At the end of June there was still approximately $1,787,681,000 in the combined accounts for the current fiscal year, which one assumes is mostly cash in the bank and short term money market investments which can be liquidated at any time. Amtrak's burn rate (that is operating revenue minus operating expense minus debt service minus capital expenditures) for April, May, and June were $267,668,000; $320,599,000 and $265,186,000 respectively. So assuming that the burn rate will not exceed $325 million per month, Amtrak should be able to function at the current rate of expenditures for the next 13 months, even without any further appropriations from Congress. This is not to say that there would not be considerable capital projects that Amtrak would want to capitalize on or which it has not already made a commitment.
Capital Spending so far has been Infrastructure: $438.5 million, Stations & Real Estate $78.9 million, Fleet Maintenance $218.6 million, Technology $76.3 million, ADA $66.6 million (for the second year in a row meeting a congressional requirement), System Support $8.7 million, Acela 21 (including Milestone Payments), $323.5 million, Fleet Acquisition $32.0 million, and Gateway $20.3 million ($1.9 million being spent in June).
Congress in the legislation being considered is raising the amount to be minimally spent on ADA from $50 million a year to $75 million a year.
The GAAP Loss for the first nine months appears to be $1,090.5 million which is $430.4 million worse than the previous period for FY2019. The operating earnings for the first nine months were $396.1 million worse than June 2019.
The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period decreased to 13. The six with surplus over $1 million were:
- Acela $104.8 million
- Northeast Regionals $10.8 million
- Washington-Lynchburg $1.8 million
- Washington-Richmond $3,4 million
- Washington-Norfolk $1.2 million
- Pennsylvanian $2.9 million
Within the Northeast Corridor, it appears that the bulk of maintenance of the track and electric traction is assigned to the regionals despite the obvious fact that the high speed Acela creates more wear and tear because of their higher speeds.
The four Virginia product lines generated a total of $4.7 million. The Virginia services being beneficiaries of the accounting system.
Ridership for the first nine months fell more than 8,876,400 from the comparable period in FY2019. For the year to date, it stands at 15,054,7XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of June was 417,1XX. The situation with the long distance trains shows a loss of riders for all of the product lines. The City of New Orleans was able to eke out the title of the greatest loser at -38.4% for the first eight months. Runner up was the Crescent at -37.8% The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -25.1%. The Auto Train may be the only long distance train where hot food is cooked to order.
Amtrak has still not posted any individual station ridership statistics.
The House passed another COVID-19 Emergency Package which contained some money for transit. The House also passed an omnibus bill containing the THUD Appropriations.
The Senate has not passed a version of the COVID Package. Senator McConnell did release a draft that was criticized by the Democrats as being stingy and by many of the GOP as being over expensive. Attempts at compromise have not yet occurred but with the GOP divided, the likelihood that the Senate draft will be increased (if it is to pass). However, there was another draft released in mid-August that eliminated the $1,200 cash stimulus check and is probably less. It also faces opposition in the Senate.
The Senate THUD Committee has not yet issued a draft. Probable because until the COVID package is enacted, the Budget committee cannot issue a top line for the various appropriation subcommittees to work with.
The Senate has also not done anything with the Surface Transportation Bill that needs to be enacted by September 30, 2020.
The final step has been made in allocating the cost of the North Portal Bridge between the Federal Government, New Jersey, the Port Authority and Amtrak, allowing construction to finally begin. However, despite having almost half of a work period left this year, the main construction is supposedly going to start next spring.

Steve Musen

Representative from the State of Rhode Island to the NARP's Council of Representatives

RI Association of Railroad Passengers