The January Report was dated February 29, 2024, and posted on March 6 , 2024.
The NEC generated a cash operating surplus of $52.921 million for the year so far (as determined by their accounting system), while the remainder of the system had an operating cash loss of $334. 806 million. Combined, the entire system had a cash operating deficit of $281.885 million for the period.
In Year to date, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $32.734 million and capital expenditures of $538.965 million. Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a negative balance of $10.479 million. It also has the cash reserves remaining from previous years.
For the rest of the National System, $0.028 million was needed for Debt service and $393.575 million was spent on Capital Expenditures. The National Network Account Balance now has a negative balance of $205.221 million. It 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 $698.520 million. Amtrak has also received $332.966 million from other capital sources for the entire system.
The combined accumulated reserves at the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year totaled $254 million in cash and cash equivalents, $222 million in short term investments and $3.188 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2022, to $3.664 billion. The current ratio (Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities) was 1.98 which would make Amtrak quite credit worthy for any fresh borrowings. Note in order to increase the transparency of Amtrak accounting; instead of reporting in thousands of dollars, the report is in millions of dollars rounded to the nearest million. It also makes it more difficult to reconcile to other items reported monthly which are usually in the nearest thousands of dollars.
In October 2023 Amtrak’s burn rate (Operating Revenues-Minus Operating Expense-Minus Debt Service-Capital Expenditures) was $278.584 million. In November, the burn rate was $247.746 million. In December the burn rate was $185.701 million. In January, the burn rate was $495.185 million.
In their tradition of changing reporting of Capital Spending for the year to date a number of categories were renamed and gather into larger categories: Engineering (now listed as Capital Renewal): $320.4 million; Mechanical: $130.5 million; Operations was $2.1 million; Digital Technology was $97.3 million; Commercial and Marketing is no longer listed as separate category. ADA was $40.7 million; Real Estate Stations & Facilities was 22.4 million; Amtrak Police & Emergency Management was $5.6 million; Safety was $1.0 million; Environmental was $1.6 million; Procurement and other was $6.0 million ; Acela 21: $28.4 million ($25.0 million in in January); Gateway was $114.1 million. Planning & Strategy was renamed Real Estate, Strategy & Planning and is now $36.8 million ($73.6. million increase in January); B&P Tunnel was $32.1 million and intercity Trainsets: $18.4 million (an increase of $6.7 million in in January). Total was $932.5 million which is $221.8 million more than FY2023 for the same period.
The GAAP Loss for the year so far appears to be $620.1 million which is $42.1 million worse than FY2023. The cash operating earnings for the year to date was $39.1 million worse than in FY2023.
For cash operating earnings, the corporation is $28.7 million behind of its Forecast. The GAAP figure is $25.0 million worse than the Forecast. It appears that the month of January was very unfavorable to expectations.
The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period was 3. They were:
- Acela $35 .8 million
- Northeast Regional $30.2 million
- Auto Train $2.3 million
The Hoosier State (which has not run for several years) has finally been removed from the breakout.
The four Virginia product lines generated a total loss of $12.7 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, Lake Shore Ltd., Capitol Ltd., Crescent, and Palmetto. The Gulf Coast Ltd. which has not started running is shown as not meeting its variable costs. Also not meeting Frequency Variable Costs was Washington-Richmond product line.
Ridership for the Fiscal Year so far is more than 1,767,500 from FY2023 for the same period. For the year to date, it stands at 10,604.5?? (Amtrak reports ridership to the nearest 100). In fact, the total number of riders in January was 2, 249.7??. The situation with the long-distance trains shows a gain of riders across most product lines, except the Coast Starlight, Capitol Ltd., Sunset Ltd., and Auto Train. The Capitol can be explained by the starvation level of its consist though it is starting to catch up to previous years. The Coast Starlight was annulled for various reasons. The Auto Train had record ridership in FY2023, so it has reverted to previous levels. The Palmetto was the biggest winner at +33.5% gain in the new fiscal year so far. The Silver Meteor was second at 23.8% gain. The line that showed smallest ridership gains after those four in negative territory wasvthe California Zephyr with a 5.2% gain. The Acela gained 12.5%.
The House passed a combination of budget appropriations on March 6, 2024. Amtrak received about $25 million less than it received in FY2023, which is much better than the original House THUD figures. The Senate passed the package, which the President signed into law.
To increase service on the NEC, all the Amfleet Coaches will have ½ seats facing forward and theg backwards. Almost all of the increased service will be between remainder facinnd Washington, D. New York City aC.
NARP Meets March 17, 2024 for the spring council meeting, though it is no longer called the spring meeting.

Steve Musen

RI Association of Railroad Passengers