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<p>[quote user="oltmannd"]</p> <p>[quote user="schlimm"]</p> <p>[quote user="Sam1"]The commuter agencies bill Amtrak for its use of the portions of the NEC owned by the commuter rail agencies. By the same token Amtrak bills the foreign carriers that operate on its segments of the NEC. If Amtrak funded the capital improvements on the NEC owned by the commuter rail agencies, the agency would have to adjust its billing back to Amtrak to reflect this fact.  Otherwise it would be double billing Amtrak.[/quote]</p> <p>See current (November) Frailey column.  According to him, Amtrak is not currently collecting from the commuter and freight line their share of capital improvements on track they use. </p> <div style="clear:both;">[/quote]</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">Like the frt roads aren't collecting their share from Amtrak outside the NEC, I suppose.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">I also wonder of the $600M/yr capital the NEC consumes, how much is for "catching up" with work deferred over the years. [/quote]</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">Without access to Amtrak's accounting records, as well as those of the foreign carriers that it operates over, it is impossible to know whether Amtrak is recovering the proportional cost of its capital improvements in the NEC or its other investments. By the same token it is impossible to know whether the commuter railroads are billing Amtrak properly for their capital investments.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">Determining the proper billing for government agencies with multiple streams of government payments to support their operations is a daunting task. Frank, I am not sure that it can be done.  Over the years Amtrak's IG has conducted audits of the payments made by Amtrak to hoist railroad. They have found numerous problems.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">I read Frailey's column.  He is a journalist. He does not appear to have access to Amtrak's property accounting records or those of the commuter railroads. He says that the commuter and freight roads will be required to pay their share for use of the NEC by 2015, in accordance with a 2008 law, without providing any details. What percentage are the paying now?  And is Amtrak paying its proper share when it runs over the 94 miles of the NEC that it does not own? Again, without access to the property accounting records of the carriers, we don't know.  And neither does Frailey.  This is a example of relying on a secondary data source.  And why it is important to take the views of journalists with a grain of salt.</div>
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