April 2021 Amtrak Financial Report

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

• The report was dated May 26, 2021 but not posted on their web page until June 1, 2021.  

• The NEC generated for the first seven months a cash operating loss of $314.7 million (as determined by their accounting system) and the remainder of the system had a fully allocated cash loss of $364.0 million. Combined, the entire system had for the period a cash operating deficit of $678.7 million.

• For the seven months, the NEC made debt service payments totaling $57.4 million and capital expenditures of $512.4 million.  Counting all capital sources, the NEC Account has a balance of $1.78 billion plus the cash reserves from previous years. 

• For the rest of the National System, only $17.4 million was needed for debt service and $368.4 million was spent on capital expenditures. The National Network Account Balance is now $1.8 billion plus the accumulated surplus from previous years. 

• The amount of money appropriated for the combined NEC and National Network for the first seven months was $4.8 billion.  Amtrak has also received from other capital sources $291.1 million for the entire system.

• The combined accumulated reserves at the beginning of the fiscal year totaled $4.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $170,025 in short term investments and $2.4 billion in available for sale securities. This brings total cash reserves as of October 1, 2020 to $2.9 billion. The current ratio (Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities) was 2.169 which would make Amtrak quite credit worthy for any fresh borrowings.

• In October, 2020 Amtrak's burn rate (operating revenues-minus operating expense-minus debt service-capital expenditures) was $216.4 million. In November the burn rate was $238.6 million. In December the burn rate was $215.2 million. In January, the burn rate increased to $246.8 million. In February the burn rate was $251.0 million. In March, the burn rate was $225.5 million. In April the burn rate was $248.5 million. From this point forward the monthly operating loss will decrease, but it is expected that capital expenditures will greatly increase as Amtrak uses the money given to it  to make strategic investments.

• Capital Spending for the seven months was: Engineering $345.3 million, Mechanical $155.7 million, Operations $7.0 million, Commercial and Marketing $0.4 million, ADA & Stations $120.4 million, Information Technology $52.5 million, Safety $8.6 million, Procurement $1.6 million, Acela 21 $126.8 million ($7.3 million in April), Planning $63.5 million, and Intercity Trainsets $2.1 million (an increase of $0.5 million in April). 

• The GAAP loss for the fiscal year to date appears to be $1.2 billion which is $556.0 million worse than the same period in FY2020.  The cash operating earnings for the year was $491.9 million worse than FY2020.

• Because of the expected losses due to the COVID Pandemic, Amtrak prepared a forecast zero budget. Comparing the seven months results, the GAAP loss is $176.7 million better than forecast and the cash operating loss is $1.6 billion better, which is an improvement of $33.5 million during the month of April. Much of this comes from better than expected ridership on the long distance trains and the remaining state supported trains. The Northeast Corridor is still doing much worse.

• The number of product lines showing a measurable operating surplus for the period is down to 8.  The two with a surplus over $1 million were:

  • Washington-Richmond $6.8 million

  • Illini $3.8 million

  • The four Virginia product lines generated a total gain of $1.4 million. The Washington-Newport News continues to show a very large loss.

• Ridership for the first seven months fell more than 10,046,400 from the comparable period in FY2020. For the year to date, it stands at 4,377,300 (Amtrak rounds to the nearest 100). In fact the total number of riders in all of April was 861,400  The situation with the long distance trains shows a lower loss of riders than the other product lines. The Palmetto  was able to retain its title of the greatest loser at -72.5% for the fiscal year. Runner up was the Capitol Ltd at -67.1% The line with the least amount of loss in the Long Distance Category was the Auto Train at -16.1%. However, these look fantastic compared to the Acela which was off 83.1%.

• Covid started to impact ridership in March 2020. From this point on, as the long distance trains improve, and the comparison months in 2020 deteriorate, the percentages could improve quite dramatically.

• There has not been much action on President Biden's Infrastructure package. A group of GOP Senators made a new counter offer to Biden's $1.7 trillion package at $588 billion. Their offer included $20 billion for passenger rail in a total package of $928 billion. However, much of this money was recycled from previous relief appropriations that has not been obligated yet. 

• Also new is the detailed budget submitted by the administration for FY2022. That contained $2.7 billion ($1.3 billion NEC and $1.4 billion National Network) which is about $700 million more than the original amount for FY2021. 

• Locally, work is progressing on the Pawtucket/Central Falls Commuter Station. The base of the bridge from Barton Street to the center island platform is beginning to take place.

• A Record of Decision on the new Hudson Tunnel was finally issued by the FRA. This allows progress to be made on getting those tunnels built.

Steve Musen

Council member from Rhode Island to NARP’s Council of Representatives.