April 2022 Amtrak Financial Report

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

• The report was dated May 26, 2022 and posted on their web page on May 27 , 2022. This is early for them.

• The NEC generated for the seven months a cash operating loss of $85.2 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had an operating cash loss of $439.2 million. Combined the entire system had for the period a cash operating deficit of $524.4 million. However, for just the month of April, the NEC generated a small surplus of $492,000.

• Year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $34.4 million and capital expenditures of $659.3 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $182.7 million-plus the cash reserves from previous years.

• For the rest of the National System, $1.1 million was needed for Debt service and $466.7 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now a negative $227.6 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 $969.0 million. Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $307.6 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 $3.265920 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2021, 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 $446.089 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. In December the burn rate was a mere $29.7 million because of the retraction of money spent on debt service which in turn explains the much lower figure. In January, the burn rate was $294.6 million. In February, the burn rate was $221.4 million. In March, the burn rate was $318.6 million. In April, the burn rate was $221.4 million.

• Capital Spending for the year to date was: Engineering $326.3 million, Mechanical $167.3 million, Operations: $12.3 million, Information Technology has been renamed Digital Technology and was $64.6 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.1 million, ADA $51.7 million, Real Estate Stations & Facilities: $71.7 million, Amtrak Police & Emergency Management $6.8 million, Safety $5.0 million, Environmental $4.5 million, Procurement $1.5 million, Acela 21 $129.8 million ($57.4 million in April), Gateway $53.7 million, Planning & Strategy $54.4 million (A $5.2 million increase in April alone), B&P Tunnel $22.2 million, and intercity Trainsets $148.5 million (an increase of $1.1 million in April).

• The GAAP Loss for the first seven months appears to be $1.1 billion which is $161.8 million better than the same period in FY2021.  The cash operating earnings for the year to date was $154.3 million better than in FY2021.

• For cash operating earnings, the corporation is $13.6 million ahead of the April Forecast. The GAAP figure is $12.6 million ahead of the April Forecast.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period remains at five. The four with a surplus of over $1 million were:

  • Auto Train $14.8 million

  • Illini $2.6 million

  • Illinois Zephyr $1.5 million

  • Washington-Richmond $1.3 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $4.4 million.

• Ridership for the seven months rose more than 7,927,200 from the comparable period in FY2021. For the year to date, it stands at 11,609,800 (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). In fact, the total number of riders in all of April was 1, 927,200. The situation with the long-distance trains shows a gain of riders across the product lines with the obvious exception of the Silver Meteor. The biggest losers in FY2021 were the ones with the highest percentage gains. The Palmetto was the greatest winner at a 283.0% gain for the new fiscal year so far. The Capitol Ltd. was second at a 192.5% gain. The lines that showed the smallest ridership gains after the Silver Meteor which lost 9.7%, were the Cardinal with a positive percent of 38.8% and The Sunset at +53.1%. The Acela gained 364.7%.

• No action has been taken on the five nominations that President Biden sent to Congress. The remaining nominations that are to be filled by Republicans have not been made.

• No action has been taken on either the House or Senate THUD bills.

Steve Musen