May 2010 Amtrak stats

[blue streak 1]

May 2010 Amtrak Stats are now available

As usual most comparisons will be FY 2010 first vs. FY 2009.

Operations only Revenues up $8.8M over budget, ticket revenue up $12.0M. Expenses $10M over budget however $11M of those expenses were for much higher fuel costs.  More on this later.  YTD Rev $65.1M up over budget. Exp $8.6 M over budget including $9.4M for better OT. Month net loss $3.5M.  Net loss for FY $62.1M. Forecast FY loss $42.5M due to mainly additional depreciable assets of $26.1M.

Regular budget capital spending is still under budget by 15M for month and FY 131.5M. Very few projects are ahead of spending. FY 2010 forecast is $39.5M more vs. April’s $122.3M less than budget. The reason may be increases in reprogramming ( ? not explained). Ahead of schedule exceptions are the 60Hz signal backup for NH – BOS the rebuilding of the Safe Harbor – Atglen 138KV transmission lines, and the track laying machine tie replacements ($14M over and projected FY over $31.1M). Various rolling stock over $27M at $133M for year so far and projected over $142M (maybe the reprogramming?).  ARRA projects now $167M behind.

Train miles virtually same. Available seat miles were up 4% from 2009 so there were some longer trains again this month. Revenue Pass miles up 10%.(great) Load factor 51.2%.  Locos out of service 17.5% 3.3% better than 09. Pass fleet 10.4% OOS 4.0% better than 09. (Maybe overhauls are helping reliability but will look for trends later this year also same as Apr)(Note overhauls costing more than budget see below). Again Diesel Gallons per mile 2.2 vs. 2.3 budget and 2.1 in 2009. Still feel that is a meaningless number since the average train is longer.  

An average passenger trip up 13 miles. Pass up 7.1% from last year.

Segments            Revenue              riders                    comments

Total                     +15.3%                 +7.1%   

Acela                    +17.6                    +13.6                    with NH-BOS in service good figures

NEC Regional     +12.5                    +4.8                     

Short Dist            +15.4                    +6.3                      longer dist per pass

Long Dist             +15.6                    +8.6       same

Whole FY all items up. MAR – may approaching Jul – Aug numbers for 2009. OTP worse for Feb – May than 2009.  Now for short dist rout summaries.

Lynchburg           $620K                   10,684                  no avoidable loss. pass 178% over budget Rev +190%

Newport News   2246K                   39K                       Only route better than Lynchburg/train

Carolinian            1555K                   27K                       Includes NEC trips and 2 above do not

                              +25.1%                 +6.6%                   must be longer trips on train

San Joaquin         rev per train lower.  pass higher than Lynch

Blue water          rev lower                            pass higher than Lynchburgh

Pennsylvanian    rev higher                           pass higher

Most improved Short Dist Pass from 2009 were Albany – Toronto; NH – Springfield, Blue Water, Cascades ;  Only SD in minus column were Mo River, Pennsylvanian, Eathan Allen, Hoosier.

Long distance

Sunset                  +36%                    +24%

Palmetto             +29                       +18%                    Avg Pass traveled a lot further like Carolinian

Eagle                    +23                       +15                       Something happening here and Sunset

Auto Train           -5.2                       -2.7

Long Distance trains south towards Florida carried 26.5% of all long distance passengers and 32% of revenue. Factor in the Carolinian and Newport news and the figure would go to 38%. It appears to this poster that maybe more emphasis needs to be placed on improving Florida service.

Sleepers

Ridership up +20% for Cal Z, SW limited, Eagle, Sunset Empire. Revenue up over 20% for those and Starlight and Lakeshore with Sunset up a whopping 37% (could it be because Sunset tickets are slightly less than Eagle tickets on same segments?

Overhauls and regular repairs:

Type                     April                      FY projections

Amfleet                $16.5M                $33.6M

Superliners          8.9                        33.6

Horizon                2.7                        6.9

Viewliners           2.2                        4.4

Acela                    4.6                        18.7

Totals                   $35.1M                $94.9M

Locos                                                 $8.6M

Rolling stock outputs Overhauls Sanford does level 1s only

Type                     plan       actual    YTD plan]YTD A  Over Budget

Amfleet                13           12           95           103       

ARRA Am             4             3             22           14           will be caught up by july

Sanford SL           0             2             0             12

Super L Beech     12           12           68           58           SAN gets SL above plan yr 127

Horizon                2             2             15           15          

Surfliners             0             0             1             2

Viewliners           1             0             8             9

Heritage              0             0             2             4

LD ARRA              2             2             10           7

Acelas                  1             0             7             7                                                                                                                     

Totals                   19           24           139        132        Includes some other items

P-40 ARRA           0             2             7             4            

Electric                 2             3             16           10           Yr plan lowered

On Time PerformancesAmtrak has published for the first time a measure of number of minutes host RRs delay per 10K miles for all host RRs for each train. Standard is 900.The best was the silver star at 251 on NS’s 28 miles (Raleigh - Selma), next 340 on NS Lynchburg; Some of the worse offenders--- BBr rr Cardinal – 2970min 132Miles BNSF Eagle 2058Min 126Miles,, CN all routes over Adirondak 4525 49M Ill 1094 306M, CP Adirondak 3842 89M,  CSX Newport News 2383 189M Silvers under, MBTA Downeaster 1775 38M, METRA Empire 3215 29M, MNrr all Albany trains 64 miles above 1200 Lake Shore 2732min, NM dot SW 1382 80miles, NS Pere 3083 39miles, SCRRA  Starlight 2180 48miles, UP Texas Eagle 1330 1104miles, VTR Ethan Allen 9871 24Miles All figures can be seen on page E-4 of May report. Report also breaks down delays on each route by RR.

Now for individual train performance. The best was the Coast Starlight at 91.9% 2 months running.; Sunset 80.8%, Auto Train 85,5%. Best SD Pennsylvanian 96.8%, Hiawathas, Missouri,Capitols and San Joaquins all at +90%.  Worse LD is Cardinal at 27%, Palmetto 53% everthing else above 61%. Worse SD Carolinian 32% everything else above 60%. 42%.    

 

[trainsBuddy]

 Thanks for info. The revenue part is confusing - why are they still loosing money?

[blue streak 1]

The VTR minutes lost is very telling 9871 minutes lost / 10,000 miles over 24 miles =  and 31 days x 2 = 6.7 minutes per mile for every train lost. So instead of the average speed from Rutland to Whitehall yard 24 miles of 31 MPH the average speed is about 23MPH. very speedy!!