May 2020 Amtrak Financial Report

These are the items that I noticed in the report that were interesting to me:

• May was an improvement over April. Actually slightly better than what Amtrak had forecasted but still a  a bad month.

• The report was dated June 26, 2020 and posted no later than July 1, 2020. 

• The NEC generated for the first eight months a cash operating surplus  of $137.4 million and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $451.6 million. Combined, the entire system had for the first eight months a cash operating deficit of $314.1 million. It is safe to say that Amtrak will not be posting any improvements in this category for most of the remaining year. Amtrak did receive funding from the CARES Act along with almost all of its FY2020 federal appropriations. It also has considerable cash reserves built up over the last few years. 

• For the fiscal year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $159.7 million and capital expenditures of $780.6 million.  Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $865.9 million plus the cash reserves from FY2018 and FY2019.

• For the rest of the National System, only $19.0 million was needed for Debt service and $479.2 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $1,031.7 million. Keep in mind that large surpluses were built up in FY2018 and FY2019. 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.

• Capital Spending so far has been: Infrastructure $391.0 million, Stations & Real Estate $66.6 million, Fleet Maintenance $194.6 million, Technology $69.3 million, ADA $58.5 million;(for the second year in a row meeting a congressional requirement), System Support $7.9 million, Acela 21 (including Milestone Payments) $309.7 million, Fleet Acquisition $31.6 million, and Gateway $18.4 million ($3.2 million being spent in April). 

• The GAAP Loss for the first eight months appears to be $877.2 million which is $282.8 million worse than the previous period for FY2019. The operating earnings for the first eight  months were $263.2 million worse than October 2018-May 2019.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period increased to 17. The seven with surplus over $1 million were:

  • Acela $109.6 million

  • Northeast Regionals $34.8 million

  • Washington-Lynchburg $2.0 million

  • Washington-Richmond $2,6 million

  • Carolinian $2.2 million

  • Washington-Norfolk $1.4 million

  • Pennsylvanian $2.0 million

• Note many of the state supported product lines showing operational improvements and even surplus despite being entirely shut down for the month of April or reduced the number of trains running. A fitting commentary on Amtrak's accounting system.

• The four Virginia product lines generated a total of $5.4 million. The Virginia services being beneficiaries of the accounting system.

• Ridership for the first eight months fell more than 6,429,000 from the comparable period in FY2019. For the year to date, it stands at 14,637,6XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of May was 513,9XX  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 -33.8% for the first eight months. Runner up was a tie between the Crescent and Silver Star at -33.3% The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -23.4%. 

• Amtrak has still not posted any individual station ridership statistics. 

• The House Appropriations Committee has passed a FY2021 Appropriations that is very favorable to Amtrak. The bill is divided into regular appropriations and a separate stimulus package. The regular package keeps Amtrak National System at the same level as FY2020 ($1,300 million) and increases the NEC by $75 million to $750 million. This totals to $2,050 billion directly to Amtrak. CRISI (Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements) was increased by $175 million to $500 million. State of Good Repair Grants was appropriated $200 million. In the Stimulus section, $5 billion more was appropriated for the Northeast Corridor and $3 billion more for the National System. CRISI gets an additional $5 billion. There are provisions in the bill that require Amtrak to maintain daily service on the long distance trains it is running now, and to retain the same number of employees that it had prior to the COVID 19 furloughs. Specific money is set aside in both portions for improvements to La Junta -Lamy track that Amtrak is the sole user of.

• The full committee did add an amendment requiring the use of masks for travelers on trains and airplanes as well as enhance cleaning.

• The Senate THUD Committee should be meeting towards the end of July. It is expected to produce a smaller bill. There may be a move to incorporate the stimulus portion of the House Bill into a general supplemental package that addresses the unemployment, state and local financial crisis. Most likely the Senate will agree to the regular appropriations sections for Amtrak plus some minimal money for Rail Passenger Restoration and Enhance Grants. For Amtrak the additional money is what is needed in FY2021 rather than the current Fiscal Year which ends on September 30, 2020. 

• Amtrak has reacted favorably to the House Bill and has promised to retain daily service if enacted into law.

• The House has passed the invest in America Bill. There are a lot of items in it that benefit rail passengers, including better language in the mission of Amtrak, the elimination of the requirement that food and beverage break even, and the need to retain the long distance trains to have a national system. It even mandates the return of ticket agents to a number of stations where they were eliminated. However, the bill has to be acted on by the Senate, which has many senators objecting to the overall size of the bill. Passage is not assured before the election, though the surface transportation portions extending existing programs does need to be passed by September 30, 2020. A continuing resolution could occur with action taking place after the election. Of course should the Democrats retain the house and elect the President and get control of the Senate, an even larger bill would be likely. 

Steve Musen

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