November 2021 Amtrak Financial Report
These are the items that I noticed in the report that were interesting to me:
The report was dated December 30, 2021, but not posted on their web page until January 3, 2022.
The NEC generated for the two months cash operating surplus of $14.3 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $103.4 million. Combined the entire system had for the period cash operating deficit of $89.1 million.
In the year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $168.2 million and capital expenditures of $164.3 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $274.1 million, plus the cash reserves from previous years.
For the rest of the National System, $49.4 million was needed for Debt service and $130.1 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now a negative $145.8 million, plus the accumulated surplus from previous years.
The amount of appropriated money for the combined NEC and National Network received for the year to date was $131.6 million. Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $49.6 million for the entire system.
The combined accumulated reserves at the beginning of the 2022 fiscal year totaled $491.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, $390.2 million in short-term investments, and $3.3 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2020, to $4.1 billion. The current ratio (Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities) was 2.383 which would make Amtrak quite creditworthy for any fresh borrowings.
In October 2021 Amtrak's burn rate (Operating Revenues-Minus Operating Expense-Minus Debt Service-Capital Expenditures) was $446.1 million. However, this includes the $217.6 million for debt service. So the actual amount may be quite a bit less. In November, the burn rate was $155.0 million. There was no money spent on debt service which explains the much lower figure.
Capital Spending for the year to date was: Engineering $91.5 million, Mechanical $51.1 million, Operations $3.2 million, Information Technology $14.2 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.0 million, ADA $14.4 million, Real Estate Stations & Facilities $30.8 million, Amtrak Police & Emergency Management $1.0 million, Safety $1.2 million, Environmental $1.5 million, Procurement $0.2 million, Acela 21 $23.1 million ($13.3 million in November), Gateway $4.7 million, Planning & Strategy $6.6 million (A $3.3 million increase in October alone), B&P Tunnel $3.4 million, and Intercity Trainsets $89.1 million (an increase of $0.9 million in November).
The GAAP Loss for the first two months appears to be $241.0 million which is $98.8 million better than the same period in FY2021. The cash operating earnings for the year to date was $92.7 million better than in FY2021.
Amtrak is running $35.2 million ahead of its plan for FY2022 for cash operating losses. The GAAP figure is $30.8 million ahead of plan.
The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period shrunk to nine. The three lines with a surplus of more than $1 million were:
Northeast Regional $17.9 million
Acela $3.6 million
Auto Train $3.4 million
The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $1.6 million
Ridership for the two months rose more than 2,480,500 from the comparable period in FY2021. For the year to date, it stands at 3,753.600 (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). The total number of riders in all of November was 1,908,000. The situation with the long-distance trains shows a gain of riders across the product lines. The biggest losers in FY2021 were the ones with the highest percentage gains since. The Crescent was the greatest winner at a 232.0% gain for the new fiscal year so far. The Capitol Ltd. was second at 208.9% gain. The lines that showed the smallest ridership gains were the Cardinal with a positive increase of 59.6%, The Auto Train at +73.9%, and the Sunset at +49.3%. It is no coincidence that all three ran their normal frequencies for all of FY2021. The Acela gained 431.0%.
Amtrak suspended the covid immunization requirement. However, large numbers of Amtrak workers caught the Omicron variant and had to miss work. This caused an increased number of cancellations around New Years Day.
Stephen Gardner was made both President and CEO of Amtrak. As the Prime Architect of the Anderson/Gardner regime, hopefully, he has learned from the horrendous mistakes that were made in that period.
Steve Musen, Representative from the State of Rhode Island to NARP’s Council of Representatives