March 2022 Amtrak Financial Report

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

• The report was dated April 27, 2022, but not posted on their web page until May 2, 2022.  

• The NEC generated for the six months a cash operating loss of $85.7 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had an operating cash loss of $376. 8 million. Combined the entire system had for the period cash operating deficit of $462.5 million.

• Year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $34.9 million and capital expenditures of $562.2 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $153.9 million-plus the cash reserves from previous years.

• For the rest of the National System, $1.0 million was needed for Debt service and $404.9 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now a negative $138.6 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 $926.3 million. Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $246.7 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, 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 $446.1 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. 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.

• Capital Spending for the year to date was: Engineering $267.5 million, Mechanical $140.8 million, Operations $11.1 million, Information Technology $51.0 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.1 million, ADA $42.3 million, Real Estate Stations & Facilities was $66.2 million, Amtrak Police & Emergency Management $5.2 million, Safety $2.8 million, Environmental $4.2 million, Procurement $1.0 million, Acela 21 $115.8 million ($57.4 million in March), Gateway $39.7 million, Planning & Strategy $49.2 million (A $155 million increase in March alone), B&P Tunnel $17.6 million, and Intercity Trainsets $147.4 million (an increase of $1.7 million in March).

• The GAAP loss for the first six months appears to be $930.6 million which is $131.6 million better than the same period in FY2021. The cash operating earnings for the year to date was $125.8 million better than in FY2021.

• For cash operating earnings, the corporation is $8.9 million ahead of the March Forecast. The GAAP figure is $3.8 million ahead of the March Forecast.

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

  • Auto Train $12.4 million

  • Illini $2.0 million

  • Illinois Zephyr $1.5 million

  • Washington-Richmond $1.1 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $3.7 million.

• Ridership for the six months rose more than 6,166,700 from the comparable period in FY2021. For the year to date, it stands at 9,682.600 (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). In fact, the total number of riders in all of March was 1,769,500. 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. The Palmetto was the greatest winner at a 272.1% gain for the new fiscal year so far. The Crescent. was second at 197.4% gain. The lines that showed the smallest ridership gains were the Silver Meteor at +9.4, the Cardinal with a positive percent of 47.9%, and The Sunset at +59.9%. The Acela gained 421.4%. (Since the Meteor will not have run at all in March and April, we know for a fact that its comparison will get worse.)

• Most of the quint-daily trains will go daily in May. The three exceptions are the City of New Orleans, the Crescent, and the Silver Meteor (which is not expected back until the fall). Consists on the long-distance fleet remain constrained with the result that sleeping car space is not only difficult to obtain but extremely expensive.

• President Biden did nominate five individuals to the Amtrak Board. Regrettably, none of them adds any rail passenger expertise to the board and all but one resides in the middle Atlantic States.

Steve Musen

Representative from Rhode Island to NARP’s Council of Representatives.