May 2022 Amtrak Financial Report

• The report was dated June 29, 2022 and posted on Amtrak’s web page on July 7 , 2022.  T

• The NEC generated for the seven months a cash operating loss of $95.5 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had an operating cash loss of $520.3 million. Combined the entire system for the period had a cash operating deficit of $615.8 million. However, for just the month of May, the NEC reverted to a cash operating loss.

• Year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $50.0 million and capital expenditures of $742.3 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $251.8 million but has cash reserves from previous years.

• For the rest of the National System, $1.1 million was needed for Debt service and $542.3 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now a negative $344.0 million but has accumulated surplus from previous years. 

• The amount of appropriated money for the combined NEC and National Network received for the year to date was $1.0 billion. Amtrak has also received $339.4 million from other capital sources 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 credit worthy 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, December’s 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, January’s burn rate was $294.644 million, February’s burn rate was $221.4 million, March’s burn rate was $318.6 million, April’s burn rate was $221.4 million, and May’s burn rate was $264.4 million.

• Capital Spending for the year to date was: Engineering $398.5 million, Mechanical $188.1 million, Operations $13.9 million, Digital Technology $83.3 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.1 million, ADA $62.4 million, Real Estate Stations & Facilities $84.6 million, Amtrak Police & Emergency Management $8.7 million, Safety $7.6 million, Environmental $4.9 million, Procurement $2.1 million, Acela 21 $137.2 million ($7.4 million in May), Gateway $57.1 million, Planning & Strategy $56.0 million, B&P Tunnel $24.9 million, and Intercity Trainsets $149.8 million.

• The GAAP Loss for the first eight months appears to be $1.2 billion which is $151.1 million better than the same period in FY2021.  The cash operating earnings for the year to date was $145.6 million better than in FY2021.

• For cash operating earnings, the corporation is $2.8 million ahead of the May Forecast. The GAAP figure is $2.2 million ahead of the May Forecast.

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

  • Auto Train $15.3 million

  • Illini $3.0 million

  • Washington-Richmond $1.7 million

  • Kansas City-St. Louis $1.0 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $5.9 million.

• Ridership for the eight months rose more than 8,232,500 from the comparable period in FY2021. For the year to date, it stands at 13,727.600 (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). In fact, the total number of riders in all of May was 2,117,800. 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 260.0% gain for the new fiscal year so far and The Capitol Ltd. was second at 190.1% gain. The lines that showed smallest ridership gains after the Silver Meteor, which lost 26.5%, the Cardinal with a positive percent of 33.8%, and The Sunset at +47.0%. The Acela gained 294.0%.

• 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.

• The House Appropriations Committee has reported a THUD Bill that contains minimum increases to the Amtrak figures in the 2022 THUD. There were some more substantial increases in a couple of the grant programs.

• The Southwest Chief’s on time performance has been extremely erratic. Most times it arrives well over five hours late. However, there are brief intervals when the train arrives in Chicago “only an hour or two late”. The Zephyr also seems to have problems but not quite as bad. The Builder on the other hand appears to stay on schedule. The times it has been late has been due to the departure from the initial station being delayed by several hours. On the other hand, the Lake Shore and Capitol seem to be running much better as of late.

• Amtrak will be restoring the Silver Meteor on Oct. 3, 2022, and running it on daily service. The Crescent and City of New Orleans will resume daily service on the same date. Only services that have not been restored is sleeper and baggage services on the Night Owl (also known as the Federal) and the Adirondack which remains truncated at Albany/Rensselaer.

Steve Musen, Representative from the State of Rhode Island to NARP’s Council of Representatives