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Amtrak Key Financial Results FY10 to FY14

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[quote user="Dragoman"]The numbers are interesting, and seem at first blush to be moving in the right direction. One thing that jumps out at me: over 3000 employees NOT involved in operations?? 3000??? Many years ago I worked for a division of Schlumberger, which had many tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries, and headquarters administrative staff that numbered in the few hundred at most. [/quote] It is in part the sign of the times.  Most organizations today have more support personal than was the case when I began my business career in 1964.  Then for example we only consulted an attorney on very rare occasions.  By the time I retired in 2006 it seemed like we had to check with the company lawyer before going to the toilet. Amtrak has a substantial number of employees who appear to closely support operations.  For example, at the end of FY14, 1,159 employees were in marketing and sales. I presume that a significant number of them work in reservations. Procurement had 469 employees; Police and Security had 486 employees; and General Counsel had 156 legal beagles or near legal beagles.  So as not to overburden the post with numbers, I showed the total head counts for Amtrak.  It shows the head counts for core, non-core, and capital employees.  Nevertheless, the ratio of operating employees to total employees is nearly the same for the core category as the totals, i.e. 81.8 per cent vs. 84.1 per cent in FY14.     A competitive business like the ones that you and I worked for have to pay close attention to their staffing levels and compensation costs.  If they don't they would lose out to a competitor who does so. But a monopoly - Amtrak is at least a near monopoly - does not have the the same pressures to control costs.
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