August 2020 Amtrak Financial Report
Ridership in August increased slightly from July.
The report was dated September 30, 2020 and posted on October 1, 2020.
The NEC generated for the first eleven months a cash operating surplus of $32.2 million and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $675.4 million. Combined, the entire system had for the first eleven months a cash operating deficit of $643.3 million. At this rate, the NEC could enter negative territory on September 30, 2020 for the entire FY2020.
For the fiscal year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $167.7 million and capital expenditures of $1,036.7 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $666.3 million plus the cash reserves from FY2018 and FY2019.
For the rest of the National System, only $26.816 million was needed for Debt Service and $666.1 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $730.9 million. Keep in mind that a large surplus was 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.
Amtrak had a cash balance of approximately $2,487,304,000 at the beginning of Fiscal 2020. At the end of August there was still approximately $1,397,149,000 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, June, July and August were $267,668,000; $320,599,000, $265,186,000,$250,378,000 and $272,309,000 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 12 months, even without any further appropriations from Congress. However, with the Continuing Resolution running through December 11, 2020 Amtrak was appropriated an additional $394.5 million which would extend that period at least an additional month.
Capital Spending so far has been: Infrastructure $551.9 million, Stations & Real Estate $107.4 million, Fleet Maintenance $259.9 million, Technology $91.2 million, ADA $89.7 million (for the second year in a row meeting a congressional requirement), System Support $11.0 million, Acela 21 (including Milestone Payments) $383.0 million (which was $45.1 million in August alone), Fleet Acquisition $55.4 million, and Gateway $22.9 million ($1.2 million being spent in August).
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 eleven months appears to be $1,451.3 million which is $663.7 million worse than the previous period for FY2019. The operating earnings for the first eleven months were $621.6 million worse than October 2018-August 2019.
The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period remained at 10. The five with surplus over $1 million were:
Acela $77.7 million
Washington-Lynchburg $1.6 million
Washington-Richmond $4.4 million
Carolinian $1.3 million
Pennsylvanian $6.3 million
The four Virginia product lines generated a total of $3.3 million.
Ridership for the first nine months fell more than 13,623,800 from the comparable period in FY2019. For the year to date, it stands at 16,204,3XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of July was 589,2XX The situation with the long distance trains shows a loss of riders for all of the product lines. The California Zephyr was able to eke out the title of the greatest loser at -43.9% for the first eleven months., runner up was the Silver Star at -43.5%. The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -30.9%. The Auto Train may be the only long distance train where hot food is cooked to order, which may explain why it had the least loss among the long distance trains.
.Amtrak has still not posted any individual station ridership statistics.
.The Senate has not taken up the House COVID Package, the Surface Transportation reauthorization, or 2021 THUD Appropriations.
The Senate did pass a CR to cover the period between October 1, 2020 and December 11, 2020.
Amtrak has been reducing all long distance trains to tri-weekly operations. Worse, they are sheding 1,950 employees which will make restoration of the reduced services difficult when the virus pandemic is over. The House has included legislation in at least two bills that would mandate the continuation of daily service (where it existed), but that legislation was in the bills the Senate has not taken up.
Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin are still negotiating a fifth Covid Package. The chair of the Federal Reserve and the President both want to see some type of deal, one because he feels the economy needs the stimulus, the other because he believes it will help him get re-elected.
Amtrak has indicated that it needs an additional $2.9 billion over its basic FY2020 appropriation of $2 billion. (This was before the CARES supplemental of a little more than an additional $1 billion. With that money it would proceed with restoration of all the cuts in long distance trains and comply with the Congressional Directives (now substantiated in the house passed bills). If Amtrak were to attempt this without any further supplemental appropriations, it would eliminate all of its accumulated reserves assuming that Congress were to give them the same basic amount as in FY2020.
Amtrak has also indicated $5.193 billion in additional infrastructure and equipment that it would want in an Economic Recovery Package.
Steve Musen
Representative from the State of Rhode Island to NARP's Council of Representatives.