September 2020 Amtrak Financial Report

• Ridership in September increased from August which is quite unusual.

• The report was dated October 30, 2020 and posted on November 2, 2020. For a year end report this was extremely early, But then again, they really didn't have that much to report,

• The NEC generated for the year a cash operating loss of $31.6 million (the first as determined by their  accounting system) and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $789.6 million. Combined the entire system had for the year a cash operating deficit of $821.1 million.

• For the fiscal year, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $168.7 million and capital expenditures of $1,169.1 million.  Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $554.3 million plus the cash reserves from FY2018 and FY2019.

• For the rest of the National System only $34.1 million was needed for Debt Service and $744.8 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $580.9 million. Keep in mind that a large surplus was built up in FY2018 and FY2019. 

• Amtrak had a cash balance of approximately $2,487,304,000 at the beginning of Fiscal 2020. In addition, at the end of the year there was still approximately $1,135,208,000 in the combined accounts left over from funds received in 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, August and September were $267,668,000, $320,599,000, $265,186,000, $250,378,000, $272,309,000, and $317,378,000 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 11  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 for the year was: Infrastructure $632.7 million, Stations & Real Estate $127.4 million, Fleet Maintenance $285.8 million, Technology $101.1 million, ADA $109.9 million (for the second year in a row meeting a congressional requirement), System Support $11.9 million, Acela 21 (including Milestone Payments), $426.3 million (which was $43.3 million in September alone), Fleet Acquisition $55.0 million, and Gateway $25.1 million ($2.2 million being spent in September). 

• Congress is considering raising the amount to be minimally spent on ADA from $50 million a year to $75 million a year.

• The GAAP Loss for the year appears to be $1,690.7 million which is $809.8 million worse than FY2019.  The operating earnings for the year was $771.8 million worse than FY2019.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period went down to nine. The five with surplus over $1 million were:

  • Acela $54.1 million

  • Washington-Lynchburg $1.5 million

  • Washington-Richmond $5.1 million

  • Carolinian $1.8 million

  • Pennsylvanian $7.8 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total of $2.8 million. The Virginia services being beneficiaries of the accounting system.

• Ridership for the year fell more than 15,679,800 from the comparable period in FY2019. For the year to date, it stands at 16,841,4XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of September was 631,1XX  The situation with the long distance trains shows a loss of riders for all of them. The Southwest Chief was able to eke out the title of the greatest loser at -44.9% for the fiscal year. Runner up was the City of New Orleans at -43.7% The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -30.7%. The Auto Train may be the only long distance train were hot food is cooked to order, which may explain why it had the least loss among the long distance trains.

• Amtrak finally posted individual station ridership statistics for FY2019. Only one year late!! 

• The Senate has not taken up the House COVID Package, the Surface Transportation reauthorization or 2021 THUD Appropriations. It has listed a THUD Appropriation as part of its negotiations with the House for an Omnibus Appropriations Package.

• Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin are still negotiating a fifth Covid Package. Those negotiations have gone nowhere. Meanwhile, with the election over (with the exception in the mind of outgoing President Trump), Senator McConnell is now getting involved. However, with the economy improving, and with Pfizer's announcement of high efficiency with their vaccine, he wants a much smaller package then what the Democrats are offering. 

• The Election took place, and we will be having a change of Presidents. However, while the Democrats held on to control the house, it looks like their majority will be significantly reduced. In the Senate, it appears control will depend on the outcome in two Georgia special elections. The Democrats did gain at least one Senate seat. The special elections means that the outcome in the Senate will not be decided until January, 2021.

• Amtrak released a press release stating the accomplishments done in FY2020. Some of those accomplishments include completion of ADA projects at two stations, and work done on the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnels. However, they omitted the acceptance of a number of sleepers from CAF, probably because most of this equipment has been stored in the weeds at Hialeah.

Steve Musen, Representative from Rhode Island to Narp's Council of Representatives