March 2021 Amtrak Financial Report

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

• The report was dated April 30, 2021 but not posted on their web page until May 4, 2021.  

• The NEC generated for the first six months a cash operating loss of $277.0 million (as determined by their  accounting system) and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $311.2 million. Combined the entire system had for the period a cash operating deficit of $588.3 million.

• For the six  months, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $28.2 million (no change in this amount since January) and capital expenditures of $451.4 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $700.8 million plus the cash reserves from previous years. 

• For the rest of the National System, only $0.8 million was needed for Debt service (also no change since January) and $316.9 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $849.2 million plus the accumulated surplus from previous years. 

• The amount of money appropriated for the combined NEC and National Network for the first six months was $2,587.2 million. Amtrak has also received $348.5 million from other capital sources for the entire system.

• The combined accumulated reserves at the beginning of the fiscal year totaled $409.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, $170.0 million in short term investments and $2.4 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2020 to $2.936480 billion or the much easier to understand $2,936.480 million. 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 million. In January, the burn rate increased to $246.8 million. In February the burn rate was $251.0 million. In March, the burn rate was $225.5 million. From this point forward the monthly operating loss will decrease, but it is expected that capital expenditures will greatly increase as Amtrak uses the money given to it  to make strategic investments.

• Capital Spending for the six months was: Engineering $293.1 million, Mechanical $135.5 million, Operations $6.7 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.4 million, ADA & Stations $106.0 million, Information Technology $42.9 million, Safety $6.8 million, Procurement $1.1 million, Acela 21 $119.5 million (which was $1.3 million LESS in March. I guess Amtrak got a refund from a previous payment), Planning $58.0 million, and Intercity Trainsets $1.6 million (an increase of $03 million from February). 

• The GAAP Loss for the fiscal year to date appears to be $1.1 billion which is $579.9 million worse than the same period in  FY2020.  The cash operating earnings for the year was $516.6 million worse than FY2020.

• Because of the expected losses due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Amtrak prepared a forecast zero budget. Comparing the six month's results, the GAAP loss is $139.7 million better than forecast and the cash operating loss is $124.2 million better (which is an improvement of $17.6 million during the month of March. Much of this comes from better than expected ridership on the longer distance trains and the remaining state supported trains. The Northeast Corridor is still doing much worse.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period is down to 9.  The two with a surplus over $1 million were:

  • Washington-Richmond $6.1 million

  • Illini $2.9 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total gain of $1.1 million. (the Washington-Newport News continues to show a very large loss.

• Ridership for the first six months fell more than 10,786,700 from the comparable period in FY2020. For the year to date, it stands at 3,515,9XX (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of March was728,6XX  The situation with the long distance trains shows a less of a loss of riders than the other product lines. The Palmetto was able to retain its  title of the greatest loser at -76.9% for the fiscal year. Runners up was the California Zephyr and the Capitol Ltd both at -71.8% The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -30.8%. However, these look fantastic compared to the Acela which is off 89.5%.

• Covid started to impact ridership in March of 2020. So from this point on, as the long distance trains improve, and the comparison months in 2020 deteriorate, the percentages could improve quite dramatically.

• There has not been much action on President Biden's Infrastructure package. A group of GOP Senators did offer a counter offer to Biden's $2.3 trillion package at $588 billion. Their offer included $20 billion for passenger rail. Senator McConnell stated that there was some potential to improving the total numbers, but that he was strongly against the funding proposals which included raising taxes on Corporations and those people making over $1 million a year. Surprisingly, the GOP proposal included raising the gasoline tax. and the Democrats rejecting the use of that method to help pay for the package. 

• However, both the Republican Senators and President Biden have been meeting with substantive discussion involved. The group of GOP Senators has agreed to revise their proposal and then the President is expected to make a counter-proposal. This is causing problems within the Democratic Party as the Progressives would prefer to move a package through with reconciliation, and the more moderate wing wanting a more constructive bi-partisan plan. The President may want to strike the largest bipartisan deal he can, and then try to use reconciliation to get the remainder of his program.

• It may be that the final outcome will be to borrow the extra money. However, increasing debt means that when interest rates return to more normal levels, that the nation will find an unacceptable level of debt maintenance eating into available discretionary spending.

• Locally work is progressing on the Pawtucket/Central Falls Commuter Station. A retaining wall along Barton Street (north side of the right of way) is being built so that the tracks can be shifted to make room for the center island platform. 

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