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

The report was dated January 29, 2021 and posted on their web page on that same day.
The NEC generated for the first three months a cash operating loss of $130.2 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $143.4 million. Combined the entire system had for the period a cash operating deficit of $273.6 million.
For the three months, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $39.7 million and capital expenditures of $214.5 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $120.7 million plus the cash reserves from previous years.
For the rest of the National System, only $1.1 million was needed for Debt service and $141.4 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $55.1 million plus the accumulated surplus from previous years.
During the month most of the money appropriated in the first Continuous Resolution was paid to Amtrak so that the total amount of money for the combined NEC and National Network for the first three months was $446.8 million. Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $157.9 for the entire system.
The combined accumulated reserves at the beginning of the fiscal year totaled $409.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $170,025 in short term investments and $2.357271 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2020 to $2.9 billion. The current ratio (Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities) was 2.169 which would make Amtrak quite credit worthy for any fresh borrowings.
In October 2020 Amtrak's burn rate (Operating Revenues-Minus Operating Expense-Minus Debt Service-Capital Expenditures) was $216.4 million. In November the burn rate was $238.6 million. In December the burn rate was $215.2. Keep in mind that the first quarter then to be rather good months so the burn rate will probably increase in the January to March period. After that period of time, revenues should start to improve as more people feel it is safe to travel after they have been vaccinated.
Capital Spending for the three months was: Engineering $165.0 million, Mechanical $64.9 million, Operations $3.7 million, ADA & Stations $55.3 million, Information Technology $19.5 million, Safety $2.8 million, Procurement $0.5 million, Acela 21 $29.6 million (which was $9.7 million in December alone), Planning $14.6 million, and Intercity Trainsets $0.3 million.
The GAAP Loss for the fiscal year to date appears to be $512.5 million which is $402.6 million worse than the same period in FY2020. The cash operating earnings for the year was $340.7 million worse than FY2020.
Because of the expected losses due to the COVID Pandemic, Amtrak prepared a forecast zero budget. Comparing the three months results, the GAAP loss is $34.6 million better than forecast and the cash operating loss is $29.0 million better which is an improvement of $3.8 million during the month of December. Much of this comes from better than expected ridership on the longer distance trains and the remaining state supported trains. The Northeast Corridor is doing much worse.
The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period is down to 10 with a two more breaking even. The three with a surplus over $1 million were:
- Pennsylvanian $4.5 million
- Washington-Richmond $2.6 million
- Illini $2.2 million
- The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $0.1 million. (the Washington-Richmond being cancelled out by the Washington-Newport News and the one producing very small surplus and the other a slight larger loss.
Ridership for the first three months fell more than 6,710,500 from the comparable period in FY2020. For the year to date, it stands at 1,790,0XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of December was 516,9XX The situation with the long distance trains shows a loss of riders for all of the product lines. The Palmetto was able to eke out the title of the greatest loser at -76.7% for the fiscal year. Runner up was the Crescent at -76.2% The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -34.3%. However these look fantastic compared to the Acela which is off 91.3%
Pete Buttigieg was confirmed by the Senate for Transportation Secretary. FRA Adminstrator Batory has resigned. Biden has not yet nominated a permanent successor.
President Biden is putting together another infrastructure package in addition to another COVID Relief Package. NARP is hoping that the infrastructure package will contain the $1.65 billion that Amtrak says it needs to restore all of the daily long distance trains that had frequency cuts along with money for new equipment and needed infrastructure improvements.
The current COVID Relief Package which totals at least $1.9 Trillion now contains $1.5 billion for Amtrak and a requirement that the long distance that were daily trains be restored to daily service and that all of the furloughed employees be recalled within 90 day of enactment, $30 billion for Transit is also included. There is opposition to the size of the package and Senators Collins and Manchin and others are trying to whittle down that size while numerous Democrats want to increase it further.
There is serious question about how much appetite there would be for another large infrastructure package if the entire $1.9 trillion is spent.

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

RI Association of Railroad Passengers