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If I were the head of Amtrak what would you do

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Allegations are not facts.  If Amtrak's accountants attempted to circumvent Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, they would be roasted by the public accountants.  I suspect that most people who allege that Amtrak cooks the books do not have access to them and, even if they did, would not be able to understand them.  I spent more than 25 years as an accountant and auditor with a Fortune 250 company.  I am thoroughly familiar with generally accepted auditing practices in the United States.For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007, the Empire Builder had total revenues of $58 million.  It incurred direct labor of $26.1 million and other direct costs of $41.4 million, for total avoidable costs of $67.5 million.  It lost $9.5 million before shared costs, which were $25.3 million.  The total attributed cost was $92.8 million, which means the Builder lost $34.8 million before depreciation and interest.  The loss was 8.9 cents per passenger mile and 5.4 cents per seat mile before interest and depreciation.Amtrak's public reports do not break down the amount of depreciation ($456.6 million) and interest ($95.9 million) attracted by the Empire Builder or the other long distance trains.  However, it is relatively small.  It is probably fair to say that the total losses for the long distance trains were five per cent higher than the losses before the application of depreciation and interest.  Five per cent is a conservative estimate.For the same period (Amtrak's accounting year runs from October 1st to September 30th) the Auto Train had total revenues of $53.5 million.  It incurred direct labor of $15.8 million and other direct costs of $27.2 million for total avoidable costs of $43.0 million.  It had a positive contribution of $10.5 million before the absorption of shared costs, which were $19.4 million.  The total attributable costs for the Auto Train were $62.5 million, resulting in a net loss before depreciation and interest of $9.0 million.  It lost 4.7 cents per passenger mile and 2.8 cents per seat mile or about half the losses for the Builder. The NEC trains earned $258.3 million before interest and depreciation.  Assuming the NEC attracts 80 per cent of the depreciation and interest, they had a net loss of $183.7 million after depreciation and interest.  It does not matter how many passenger miles a train generates anymore than it matters how much market share an enterprise holds.  What counts in any business model is whether a service covers its costs.  If it does not, a prudent business person would drop the service or product line and concentrate on the ones that make money or have a reasonable probability of doing so.  Given a net operating loss of $1,051 million, the average federal subsidy per Amtrak passenger was $40.68.  The estimated average federal subsidy per long distance passenger was approximately $130.The numbers shown above, with the exception of the estimated federal subsidy per passenger, which is my calculation using Amtrak's numbers, can be verified at Financial Performance of Routes - Strategic Business Line (SBL), September 2007 YTD.  The report is located at Appendix C-1 in the montly report for September 2007.  Amtrak's annual reports provide limited operating data.  Detailed operating reports are found in the monthly performance reports.
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