Edit topic

Updated your discussion topic below.

Subject
Enter a subject for your topic. Maximum 150 characters.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
In FY13 Amtrak had an operating loss of $435 million.  The NEC had an operating profit of $372.9 million, which was offset by an operating loss of $180.8 million for the State Supported and Other Short Distance trains and $627.1 million for the Long Distance trains.  Stated as contributions per passenger mile, the NEC had an average operating profit of 20 cents, which was offset by a loss of 9 cents for the State Supported and Other Short Distance trains and 22 cents for the Long Distance trains.  These results are before depreciation, interest, and state capital payments.  Also, the numbers have been rounded. If the NEC were to wear 80 per cent of Amtrak’s annual depreciation and interest expenses, with the remaining 20 per cent allocated evenly between the State Supported and Other Short distance trains and the Long Distance trains, the results, adjusted for the state capital payments, would show an average loss of 11 cents per passenger mile for the NEC, 11 cents for the State Supported and Other Short Distance trains, and 24 cents for the Long Distance trains.  If the numbers were changed to 90, 5, and 5, the results would be 15, 9 and 23. When I ran this analysis several years ago, using the same guesstimate regarding depreciation and interest expenses, the average loss per passenger mile for the NEC was nearly equal to the average loss for the Long Distance trains.  The change can be attributed largely to the dramatic improvement in the NEC operating results.  I don’t know how the depreciation and interest expenses would be allocated, i.e. whether 80 per is attributable to the NEC, for example, but hopefully Amtrak will respond to my FOIA request to disclose the information.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
E-mail Subscribe
Check the box below if you want to receive e-mail notifications when replies are made to this thread.

Receive notifications