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
