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$11 billion later, high speed rail in US drags along

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[quote user="schlimm"] [quote user="Sam1"]Amtrak's OPEBS expense is the present value of its actuarial obligations for post retirement benefits. Unlike a public entity, which can, as the article explains, pay as you go, Amtrak is required to fund a percentage of the obligation in the current period. Part of it requires a cash outlay. [/quote] Between that and direct labor, Amtrak is in a difficult position.   I don't really want to open a can of worm, but some of those expenses are higher than other transportation industies [/quote] It is not a can of worms.  You may remember that a year or so ago I showed a comparison of Amtrak's labor costs, as a percentage of its expenses and revenues. against Southwest Airlines, First Group (Greyhound) and Stagecoach (Megabus).   Amtrak's staff expenses were approximately 50 per cent of expenses and nearly 70 per cent of revenues.  For First Group they were 46 per cent of expenses but only 43 per cent of revenues. For Stagecoach they were 42 per cent of operating costs and 41 per cent of revenues. Southwest Airlines had considerably lower ratios than Amtrak, but I took it out of the comparison because it does not really compete with Amtrak in most markets. Someone can, of course, claim that this is not a fair comparison because of the amenities and different classes of service offered by Amtrak, e.g. lounge cars, dinning cars, sleeping cars, etc. But it certainly suggests that Amtrak's ground based, short haul competitors, have a better handle on their labor costs.
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