June 2022 Amtrak Financial Report

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

• The report was dated July 27, 2022, and was posted on Amtrak’s web page on August 8, 2022.  

• The NEC generated nine months cash operating loss of $105.5 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had an operating cash loss of $619.0 million. Combined, the entire system had for the period cash operating deficit of $724.480 million. However, for just the month of June, both the Acela and Northeast Regionals posted surpluses.

• Year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $51.5 million and capital expenditures of $828.7 million.  Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $326.7 million more than covered by the cash reserves from previous years.

• For the rest of the National System, $1.2 million was needed for Debt service and $696.8 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now a negative $469.8 million more than covered by 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 $1.2 billion. Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $344.6 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, 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 $221.5 million. In March, the burn rate was $318.6 million. In April, the burn rate was $221.4 million. In May, the burn rate was $264.4 million. In June, the burn rate was 351.1 million.

• Capital Spending for the year to date was: Engineering $462.9 million, Mechanical $277.2 million, Operations $15.1 million, Digital Technology $95.8 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.1 million, ADA $72.2 million, Real Estate Stations & Facilities $100.5 million, Amtrak Police & Emergency Management $9.9 million, Safety $12.1 million, Environmental $5.3 million, Procurement $2.5 million, Acela 21 $143.4 million ($6.2 million in June), Gateway $58.9 million, Planning & Strategy $71.4 million (A $15.4 million increase in June alone), B&P Tunnel $29.3 million, and Intercity Trainsets $150.8 million (an increase of $1.0 million in June). The total was $1.5 billion which is $164.3 million more than the same period last year.

• The GAAP Loss for the first nine months appears to be $1.4 billion which is $154.3 million better than the same period in FY2021. The cash operating earnings for the year to date was $127.0 million better than in FY2021.

• For cash operating earnings, the corporation is $24.58 million behind the June Forecast. The GAAP figure is $9.3 million behind the June Forecast.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period decreased to 5. The four with a surplus of over $1 million were:

  • Auto Train $19.2 million

  • Illini $3.0 million

  • Washington-Richmond $1.8 million

  • Kansas City-St. Louis $1.4 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $7.7 million.

• Ridership for the nine months rose more than 8,982,500 from the comparable period in FY2021. For the year to date, it stands at 15,984.600 (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). In fact, the total number of riders in all of June was 2, 257.000. 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 191.2% gain for the new fiscal year so far. The Silver Star was second at 149.8% gain. The lines that showed the smallest ridership gains after the Silver Meteor which lost 38.6%, were the Cardinal with a positive percent of 25.7%, and The Sunset at +38.0%. The Acela gained 214.9%.

• No action has still been taken on the five nominations that President Biden sent to Congress. The Commerce Committee has not even had a hearing on them. The remaining nominations that are to be filled by Republicans have still not been made.

• The House approved 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, maybe worse. The Builder appears to stay on schedule. The times it has been late having 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 had another groundbreaking for the North Portal Bridge. Hopefully, this means actual construction has begun at the site. They are hoping to have one track on the new bridge operating by the fall of 2025, the other track by the summer of 2026, and the old bridge demolished in 2027.

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