March 2023 Amtrak Financial Report
The March Report was dated April 28, 2023 and posted on May 2 , 2023.
The NEC generated for the year to date, a cash operating surplus of $77.7 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had an operating cash loss of $465.1 million. Combined the entire system had for the period a cash operating deficit of $392.4 million.
In Year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $107.3 million and capital expenditures of $693.0 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account had a negative balance of $36.7 million, and also has the cash reserves remaining from previous years.
For the rest of the National System, $6.1 million was needed for Debt service and $477.9 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance now has a negative balance of $238.1 million, and also has 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 $927.9 million. Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $473.9 million for the entire system.
The combined accumulated reserves at the beginning of the 2023 fiscal year totaled $299.1 million in cash and cash equivalents, $123.9 million in short term investments and $2.9 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2022, to $3.3 billion. The current ratio (Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities) was 1.894 which would make Amtrak quite credit worthy for any fresh borrowings even though it is slightly down from last year.
Amtrak’s October 2022 burn rate (Operating Revenues-Minus Operating Expense-Minus Debt Service-Capital Expenditures) was $210.269 million, November’s $318.8 million, December’s $256.4 million, January’s $271.7 million, February’s $295.2 million, and March’s burn rate was $324.2 million.
Capital Spending for the year to date was: Infrastructure Services $491.0 million, Mechanical $158.5 million, Operations $4.5 million, Digital Technology $130.1 million, Commercial and Marketing $0, ADA $59.8 million, Real Estate Stations & Facilities $24.5 million, Amtrak Police & Emergency Management $4.8 million, Safety $3.1 million, Environmental $1.6 million, Procurement $1.5 million, Acela 21 $92.2 million, Gateway $91.7 million, Planning & Strategy $45.8 million, B&P Tunnel $39.8 million, and Intercity Trainsets $29.2 million. The total was $1.1 billion which is $264.1 million more than the same period last year.
The figure that stands out the most is the huge amount spent on Digital Technology. Considering that the Amtrak web site remains a disaster, and no real updates to the reservation system, it begs the question as where this money is spent. The most logical answer is that Amtrak is leasing the lousy software that it is using and much of this money is rental payments. Planning & Strategy falls much more into operating rather than capital expense. (Panning and environmental exercises for Gateway, B&P Tunnel, etc. should be allocated directly to those projects).
The GAAP Loss for the year so far appears to be $898.8 million which is $31.8 million better than FY2022., and the cash operating earnings for the year was $70.2 million better than in FY2022.
For cash operating earnings, the corporation is $23.5 million ahead of forecast. The GAAP figure is $18.6 million better than the forecast.
The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period was five. The three with a surplus over $1 million were:
Northeast Regional $47.1 million
Acela $46.6 million
Auto Train $9.1 million
The Hoosier State (which has not run for several years) is shown as profitable to the tune of $0.9 million.
The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $15.3 million.
Amtrak is now showing costs based as Frequency Variable Costs, Route Variable Costs and System Fixed Costs. Most trains covered their Frequency Variable Costs. The exception were all of the long distance trains not including the Auto train, Silver Meteor and Palmetto. The capacity of most long-distance trains remains constrained.
Ridership for the Fiscal Year so far rose more than 3,190,500 from FY2022. For the year, it stands at 12,873,100 (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). In fact, the total number of riders in March was 2, 205.000 . The situation with the long-distance trains shows a gain of riders across all product lines, except the Silver Star, which has lost riders to the Silver Meteor now that it has been restored. The Silver Meteor was the biggest winner at +56.1% gain in the new fiscal year so far. The City of New Orleans was second at 44.8% gain. The lines that showed smallest ridership gains after the Star was the Capitol. Ltd at +2.1% with the Cardinal with +3.4% . The Acela gained 57.3%.
The House THUD is scheduled to release its appropriations now that the House has set an overall budget. However, budget negotiations with the President and the need to compromise with the house will hopefully increase the initial numbers.
Steve Musen, Representative from Rhode Island to NARP’s Council of Representatives