March 2020 Amtrak Financial Report

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

• This will come as no surprise, but March was not a good month.

• The report was dated May 1, 2020 and posted May 4, 2020. This was a bit late.

• The NEC generated for the first six months a cash operating surplus  of $223.3 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 $305 million. Combined the entire system had for the first six months  a cash operating deficit of $71.7 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 the bulk of its FY2020 federal appropriations and the remainder is expect soon. In addition Amtrak was appropriated $1.0 billion in the Coronavirus Package #3 to cover expenses of the disease and to replace lost income (including state support money), that money was not received in March. 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 $116.0 million and capital expenditures of $626.5 million. Much of the capital expeditures were milestone payments for the Acela 21s being built. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $446.0 million plus the cash reserves from FY2018 and FY2019. They will need it as all Acela trains have been suspended along with the bulk of the Northeast Regionals through the end of May 2020. 

• For the rest of the National System, only $18.7 million was needed for Debt service and $331.5 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $515.8 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:  $294.1 million, Stations & Real Estate $44.7 million, Fleet Maintenance $147.6 million, Technology $58.1 million, ADA $42.4 million, System Support $6.5 million, Acela 21 (including Milestone Payments) $164.3 million, Fleet Acquisition $30.1 million, and Gateway $13.9 million ($3.8 million being spent in March). There was another significant jump in the milestone payments as the second of the Acela 21 trainsets left the factory headed for testing on the NEC.

• The GAAP Loss for the first six months appears to be $482.3 million which is $51.3 million worse than the previous period for FY2019.  The operating earnings for the first six months were $35.3 million worse than October 2018-March 2019.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period increased to 12. The six with surplus over $1 million were:

  • Acela $137.3 million

  • Northeast Regionals $95.2 million

  • Washington-Lynchburg $1.7 million

  • Washington-Norfolk $1.4 million

  • Carolinian $1.4 million 

  • Washington-Richmond $1.2 million            

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total of $4.6 million.

•  Ridership for the first six months fell more than 1,191,800 from the comparable period in FY2019. For the year to date, it stands at 14,302,6XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). The situation with the long distance trains shows a loss of riders for all  of the product lines from the Lake Shore at -4.5% to the City of New Orleans at -15.8%.

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

• There was a fourth package of relief for the Coronavirus Epidemic but it did not contain any further money for Amtrak or transit. The fifth package being considered may contain some money but that package is not definite and may not even be passed.

• No word from Congress about the 2021 THUD Package. Because of the threat of Covid-19 infection, Congress has been unable to meet until recently and then it has only been the Senate.  Work is being done behind the scenes, but not yet revealed. Indications are that Amtrak will get its proposed appropriation requests, but the legislative changes may have to wait for a surface transportation re-authorization bill. If Congress needs to pass either a Coronavirus Package #5 or even a short term extension of the Fast Act, there may not be sufficient time for the surface transportation reauthorization to surface.  

• As noted last month, Amtrak has made a huge number of service suspension.  Right now there are only four round trips a day east of New Haven to Boston. The Vermonter north of New Haven is suspended, along with some of the New Haven Springfield service, and most of the Downeasters.  South of New York the long distance trains are now carrying local passengers between New York and Washington. However, on June 1, 2020 some Acelas will be restore along with 2 round trips of the Northeast Regionals. A number of state supported trains are also likely to return at that time.

• Amtrak is asking for an additional $1.5 billion for FY2021 and facing a potential 20% cut in its employees. They are forecasting that for FY2021 that ridership and revenues will only be 50% of FY2019.

• The FRA has made a number of State of Good Repair Grants. Included was $55.1 million towards construction of the North Portal Bridge. Hopefully this means that construction can finally start on this project. All of the other grant money (over $300 million total awards) would also benefit Amtrak. 

  Steve Musen

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