Wall Street Journal Article on Amtrak and Anderson: A Flight Plan For Amtrak

[Gilbert B Norman]

It is hilarious how the advocacy comminity, which be assured Mark Singer is part of, love to say how Amtrak accounting does not conform with GAAP. They would not have an Auditor's Opinion stating such does if it didn't.

[rcthompson04]

Yes. Singer’s piece is a diatribe of moaning without purpose. Him and his ilk need to realize even if you take his fairy tale into account and say the Northeast Corridor is disproportionately favored, without the Northeast Corridor and decades of political support, there would be no passenger rail in the US outside some commuter lines.

[Tadman]

I don't know much about this Singer guy. If a big firm says they meet GAAP, that's a pretty good stamp of approval. What may be more accurate is that their "cost accounting", or methods of allocating internal costs between product lines and operations, is a grey area. GAAP covers the overall moneymaking capability of the company. It is concerned with accurately reporting costs, revenues, and capital uses of funds in X time period. It allows shareholders to evaluate their investment. Because allocating money among product lines does not change the overall annual/quarterly picture, GAAP doesn't affect that.

Ergo the beef about states trains. It's a beef I share. $3m subsidy to yearly operate the 0.5x/day Hoosier when the 20x/day South Shore (including double track, wires, 12 stations, 85 cars, etc.. for $12m/year???? No way the state trains are billed fairly. But that's not a GAAP violation. That's no different than an airline charging higher prices to people with more inelastic demand, which they do all day.

And to Jeff's comments about PSR: That's why I suggested outsourcing motive power to the host road, or the majority host road. Every summer you see pics of host road GEVO's towing dead and late trains home. If they went to HEP on skids in the quasi-empty baggage cars, and wet-leased power, the host railroads would be very incentivized to keep said power in top shape. Besides, the P42's are at the end of life and there are literally thousands of freight units in storage.

[Alex M]

Reading the attached white paper, Mr. Singer raises a topic that was brought up before about Amtrak shedding the NEC infrastructure to the FRA. If they were freed of this albatross, would the corridor trains then become truly profitable?

[WashingtonPark]

An article about long distance vs. corridor service. https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commenta ... trak-that/

[Rbts Stn]

Just remember that GAAP differs by industry, so you'd need to compare Amtrak's accounting with other US passenger railroads in order to see if Amtrak is using Generally Accepted Principals.

[Jeff Smith]

https://youtu.be/q-jP4vh3z_A WSJ Video

[David Benton]

Great video . Anyone know what the train shown at the 5 minute is ?

[R36 Combine Coach]

Reading the attached white paper, Mr. Singer raises a topic that was brought up before about Amtrak shedding the NEC infrastructure to the FRA. If they were freed of this albatross, would the corridor trains then become truly profitable?

Washington Union Station is already owned by USDOT, Connecticut and Massachusetts own their share of the corridor. Next would possibly the State of New Jersey owning Trenton to NYP?

With Penn Station Access on New Haven Line via Hell Gate, would that have MNCR/State of New York taking over NYP-New Rochelle?

[Jeff Smith]

For the NEC, no one wants to relinquish control. Amtrak is the red-headed step child over the portion from New Rochelle to State St. at the whims of local dispatchers. Same with the Hudson Line. NJT is the red-headed step child on their NEC territory. Amtrak rules the roost for MNRR Penn Access, and is squeezing SEPTA. Then there's the freight railroads...

Everyone is going to have to learn how to cooperate and be reasonable. I loath the idea of a regional authority, but maybe there should be some type of oversight board or such, although honestly I look at the MTA board and shudder. PATH too.

[R36 Combine Coach]

Everyone is going to have to learn how to cooperate and be reasonable. I loath the idea of a regional authority, but maybe there should be some type of oversight board or such.

There's already the NEC Commission, a joint federal-state commission established by Congress, though it is largely more advisory and planning that administrative or regulatory.

[SRich]

For the NEC, no one wants to relinquish control. Amtrak is the red-headed step child over the portion from New Rochelle to State St. at the whims of local dispatchers. Same with the Hudson Line. NJT is the red-headed step child on their NEC territory. Amtrak rules the roost for MNRR Penn Access, and is squeezing SEPTA. Then there's the freight railroads...

Everyone is going to have to learn how to cooperate and be reasonable. I loath the idea of a regional authority, but maybe there should be some type of oversight board or such, although honestly I look at the MTA board and shudder. PATH too.

A good solution would be that the entire NEC is owned by 1 infrastructure company, including land and stations. all employees of towers and maintenance teams are employed by that company. That company can be a public one (with the U.S. government as sole shareholder) or a federal agency in U.S. DOT or administratively placed with Amtrak. And every operator pays the new company a fee for using it's stations, track, workers, and maintenance.

Then the NEC would

[Suburban Station]

A good solution would be that the entire NEC is owned by 1 infrastructure company, including land and stations. all employees of towers and maintenance teams are employed by that company. That company can be a public one (with the U.S. government as sole shareholder) or a federal agency in U.S. DOT or administratively placed with Amtrak. And every operator pays the new company a fee for using it's stations, track, workers, and maintenance.

Then the NEC would

the Us Government manages Independence Hall in Philadelphia and it is dilapidated, money is siphoned off based on politics (to places like yellowstone with far fewer visitors). the cure may be worse than the disease in this case

[Suburban Station]

Ergo the beef about states trains. It's a beef I share. $3m subsidy to yearly operate the 0.5x/day Hoosier when the 20x/day South Shore (including double track, wires, 12 stations, 85 cars, etc.. for $12m/year???? No way the state trains are billed fairly. But that's not a GAAP violation. That's no different than an airline charging higher prices to people with more inelastic demand, which they do all day.

maybe the lesson is less about how it was billed than how services should be viewed. rather than train a 4 day a week train with zero capital investment, it is more cost effective to run several a day trains coupled with capital investments for improvements. as far as I can tell, the operating loss for south shore is $35 million in operating (and more than 20% of expenses are G&A)...and $32 million in capital (p 13). OTOH, the hoosier state was a hospital train that amtrak started selling tickets on before PRIIA existed. it was an unloved frankenstein that ran unreliably three days a week and never saw a dime of capital improvements. http://www.govwiki.info/pdfs/Special%20 ... 202017.pdf

[Tadman]

Totally agree. The Hoosier was wrong from so many levels, not just funding and support. The schedule, the route, the frequency, the tie-in with Cardinal... They tried to put a square peg in a round hole and I'm not even sure why. Why was a hospital train needed when the Cardinal still ran/runs? I don't think the equipment levels are so tightly connected that daily service is required to ferry equipment to Beech Grove.

But that's why I'm so big on sitting back and evaluating every train in the network in the context of 2020 and asking does this make sense in light of today's situation, which includes or will soon include e-commerce, video conferencing, bargain airlines, electric and autonomous cars, etc...

That's why I think it's so important to look at some of the upcoming service revivals like the Mobile train and Duluth train and really try hard not to envision them as a reset of the Gopher or the Sunset East. It's a different time and there certainly are passengers out there, but they don't act like Reagan and Carter voters.