RIARP Spring Meeting Thursday

Our next meeting will be this Thursday, May 22nd at 3:30 PM at the Rhode Island Foundation located in the main building of the old Providence Union Station Complex. We will be meeting in the Gallery Room on the first floor.

At the top of our agenda will be a presentation on the Providence Street Car followed by a discussion. Should time permit there will be an update on the recent Spring NARP Council Meeting in Silver Spring, and the Amtrak Appropriations that are being considered by the House of Representatives. We have the room to 5:00 P.M.

STEVE MUSEN

Newsletter Editor/Director at Large

July Amtrak Report

I have read the July report and these are the items that I found interesting.

1) The report is dated September 6, 2013 but not posted until the 11th of September. The 6th would be on time, the 11th a bit late.

2) July was also a good month especially ridership, however, the yield per passenger appears to be slightly less than in June.

3) Amtrak operations for the period of October 2012 to July 2013 are now $33.2 million better than budget. When cash only items are considered, Amtrak is forecasting for the entire FY2013 a requirement of $370.1 million, which is $63.6 million less than the appropriation for FY2013. {See end for comments on FY2014 appropriations}

4) Amtrak has signed a contract with Virginia and published that information. They have apparently also signed contracts with Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington. Twelve or thirteen states (if you include New Hampshire) remain unsigned. Still with little more than 2 weeks to the end of the fiscal year when all of these contracts should be in place, it is disheartening that more have not been announced.

Amtrak will be posting discontinuance notices on October 1, 2013 in all stations with state supported trains where no state contract has been signed.

5) The seven product lines with operational surplus remain the same:

Acela with $201.5 million, Northeast Regionals with $108.1 million, NEC Specials at $2.7 million, Washington-Lynchburg also at $2.7 million; Washington-Newport News at $2.1 million, the Adirondack at $1.5 million and Washington-Norfolk at $0.4 million.

The auxiliary services (such as commuter operations, real estate and freight railroad access fees) are showing a much smaller deficit in YTD for July than the YTD in June. Amtrak has probably revised the allocation of costs from those activities to the operation of its core passenger trains. Northeast Regionals for example showed virtually no increase in its operational surplus despite increased ridership over budget.

6) Amtrak employment shrunk by 3 during July to 20,181.

7) Cash on hand as of July 31, 2013 was $394.5 million, an increase of $109.1 million. Should there be a budgetary stall by Congress Amtrak should have sufficient cash on hand to proceed normally for several months safely. Restricted cash was reduced slightly to $7.263 million.

8) Net interest paid so far this year is $9.2 million better than budget and $37.3 million improved over last year.

9) In July, long term debt decreased by $26.579 million. Capital Leases decreased by $27.165 million and Equipment and other debt by $1.380 million. The RRIF loan grew by $1.967 million representing accrued interest on the existing loan.  Current maturities decreased by$11.924 million. Total debt is now $1.358 billion.

10) Authorized capital spending continues to be increased, but actual forecasted spending remains only slightly larger than the previous month. Of the projected capital spending only Engineering showed an increase. The rest of the departments showed decreases.

In actual spending for the Year to Date, $795.243 million has been spent. Major Bridges is now $15.535 million and Acquisitions increased by $28.670 million to $61.970 million. {Most likely the payments were made for the Electric Locomotives as several have been completed and awaiting testing}.

11) Ridership for the first ten months of FY2013 was 26,267,813; which is 283,931 ahead of last year for the comparative period. There are no product lines have an increase of more than 10% from the previous year.

12) Engineering completed 3 turnouts, 2 retimbered bridge decks, and renewed 3.6 more miles of catenary equipment. The signal cable installation showed some shrinkage of .8 miles to 59.2 miles in the year to date.

13) Mechanical overhauled 13 Amfleets, 7 Superliners, 3 Horizions, 1 Heritage Diner, 1 Viewliner, and 2 Surfliners.

14) At this time Congress is considering a continual resolution to fund all goverment activities through December 2013. For Amtrak this would be current levels, less the effect of greater sequestration (in English, slightly less than current levels). This would a significant improvement over the amounts in the House THUD bill that was pulled and is almost the amount in the Senate THUD bill, which was also pulled.

Amtrak looks like it will have a significant amount of its operational appropriation left over on October 1, 2013, which provides Amtrak with a safety net in FY2014.

The Electric Locomotives being built by Siemens are being field tested on the Northeast Corridor. Some should enter revenue service this fall.

There has been less information of the low-level long distance equipment, though a couple of them could be in service by the end of the next fiscal year.

STEVE MUSEN

Rhode Island to the National Association of Railroad Passengers' Council of Representatives

June Amtrak Report

I have read the June report and these are the items that I found interesting.

1) The report is date July 26, 2013 and posted the next day on the Amtrak Web site. This is very early.

2) June was a very good month, as Amtrak was able to achieve several budgetary goals.

3) As a result Amtrak operations for the period of October 2012 through June 2013 is now $10.1 million better than budgeted. When cash only items are considered, Amtrak is forecasting for the entire FY2013 a requirement of $389.2 million for operations, which is $44.5 million less than appropriation for FY2013.  This is good news, but some of our "friends" will spin it as another example of excess appropriations which should be cut.

4) Amtrak has still not revealed whether or not any signed contracts have occurred with the State Corridors. {NOTE VIRGINIA HAS SINCE SIGNED AN AGREEMENT.} Last month Michigan showed a healthy profit for the Blue Water. While that product line is now back in the red, the Adirondack is now shown in the black. (New York may reach an agreement on that line).

5) There remain seven product lines that show an operational surplus: Acela at $191.1 million; Northeast Regionals $108.4 million, NEC Specials $3.5 million; Washington-Lynchburg $2.6 million, Washington-Newport News $2.2 million, Adirondack $1.5 million and Washington-Norfolk at $0.3 million. The NON-NEC Specials cover all expense except for OPEBs (Other Post Employment Benefits).

6) Amtrak employment shrunk by 27 during June to 20,184.

7) Cash on hand on June 30, 2013 was $285.4 million; a decrease of $32.6 million from the end of the previous month. Restricted cash rose slightly to $7.579 million.

8) Net Interest paid so far this year is $5.9 million better than budget and $34.8 million improved over last year.

9) In June, Long term debt decreased by $3.636 million. Capital Leases decreased by $17.306 million, Mortgages by $11.690 million and Equipment and other Debt by $139,000. However the RRIF loan for the new locomotives grew by $25.498 million. Current maturities also grew by $2.317 million. Total debt is now $1.397 billion.

10) Authorized capital spending continues to be increased, but actual forecasted spending decreased (for the entire year) by another $11.892 million from the forecast given last month. Expected spending is expected to be $1,107.070 million. Only two departments expected to increase their spending over the previous forecast were Transportation of $4.040 million and Amtrak Technologies of $1.740 million. On the other hand Engineering is expect to spend $2.165 million less, Mechanical $8.195 million less, NEC IID $3.212 million less, Marketing $2.889 million less and Emergency Management $1.407 million less.

In subprograms Major Bridges was pared by $.0961 million and Acquisitions $0.424 million less.

As of June 30, 2013 Amtrak had actually spent $676.208 million on Capital Projects of which $13.854 million was for the Major Bridges special project and $33.300 million for Acquisitions (an increase of $0.173 million).

11) Ridership for the first nine months of FY2013 was 23,359,619; an increase of 150,910 from the same period last year. June 2013 was a record June and almost set an all time monthly record. Amtrak is very likely to set another annual record when FY 2013 is complete.

Because of the large increases from previous years, and lack of no additional equipment, it is not surprising that none of the product lines had a ridership increase greater than 10% from the previous year.

12) Engineering completed 4 more turnouts and another 5.3 miles of new signal cable. Most of the new signal cable was on the New Haven to Springfield line where Amtrak is replacing all of the old signal cable in anticipation of double tracking the entire line.

13) Mechanical overhauled 14 more Amfleets, 4 Superliners, 1 Horizon, 1 Viewliner, and 1 Surfliner.

14) At this moment, {end of July 2013} both the full House and Senate are voting on provisions in their Transportation appropriations. The House bill already below the danger point for Amtrak continuity faces amendments eliminating all of its remaining operating and capital funding. There is also amendments by Rep. Mica to have third parties operate some of Amtrak lines and to eliminate any federal support for food and first class service. The second amendment mirrors efforts by Senator Flake in the Senate bill. There are also amendments to increase funding in both the house and bills.

Meanwhile the new Electric Locomotives built by Siemans are advancing through testing. It is becoming more likely that some of them will enter revenue service this fall.

The Amtrak reauthorization bill which was thought possible in this session of Congress is now more likely to be taken up next year.

STEVE MUSEN

Rhode Island Representative to the National Association of Railroad Passengers' Council of Representatives