Amtrak Revenue and Cash Shortfall - Merged

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printman2000

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Nov 9, 2005
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Amarillo, Texas
Was given a link to the following document from Joe Boardman... (only an image)

(I searched a bunch of terms to see if this was being discussed and found nothing, sorry of this has been posted)

JoeB.jpg
 
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And by the way - let's gut the AGR program while we're at it!

The trains I've been riding have been super packed and all the trains over Thanksgiving were sold out... I guess my route (NYP-BOS) was the exception, not the norm...
 
Maybe so, but you have got to look at the monthly financial reports, and indeed there is a bit of a problem. And AGR is not the issue. It is revenue shortfall relative to budget and reduced ridership caused possibly due to lower gas prices.
 
Amtrak can begin by doing a mass clean out of all the Dead Wood employees who do nothing but waste company resources and in the case of OBS Crew, give a bad experience. Replace them with folks who will work an honest day for an honest dollar, make the value of the product increase and as a result, begin to increase the inflow of revenue.
 
AGR and all the long distance complaints are a red herring. Acela fares are the lifeblood of the cash flow--nowhere else does Amtrak come close to making that much money per mile. And Acela has been off budget the worst. Even if people are simply moving from Acela to Regional services, revenue is going to take a huge hit even if ridership overall is steady. And if Regional traffic is declining due to low gas at the same time Acela is taking a hit due to decreased business travel (first class ridership was off considerably more than business class, so I think it's safe to say that those are travelers leaving Amtrak entirely--I don't see first class business travelers moving to theRegional, at least not en masse, more likely they're videoconferencing nowadays), they are never, ever going to have a prayer of keeping to the budget.
 
Was the budget realistic in the first place?

jb
Who knows? But if the cash flow planned in the budget does not appear and you start running out of cash, the question is mostly of theoretical interest. Usually what happens is some of the foundation assumptions used in the budget process do not pan out, sometimes due to unforeseen happenstances. The more relevant question is how do you manage yourself out of the current situation while causing least damage. We in the private industry have gone through this a couple of times now between 1999 and today, so this is nothing new really. it happens in business from time to time.
 
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Endless growth in ridership, endless increase in ticket fares. Very realistic.

Some people have been warning about this issue for years.
 
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Per the Philadelphia Inquirer (and as anyone who read this morning's thread before it was deleted already knew) Boardman is requesting 3.8% budget cuts from department heads and will be taking "more aggressive actions" in the future.
 
I believe that one (or more) of the admins tend to be a bit skittish about the possibility of publishing something that got "leaked" on here. This sort of thing happened back in August over the AGR 2.0 leak
 
It's just hidden, not deleted.
Sounds like a distinction without a difference.

I believe that one (or more) of the admins tend to be a bit skittish about the possibility of publishing something that got "leaked" on here. This sort of thing happened back in August over the AGR 2.0 leak
This behind the scenes silent maneuvering only serves to make these decisions look even more suspect. Was the forum sold to Amtrak when I wasn't looking or is there a self appointed prefect who has chosen to place Amtrak's public relations interests above the will of the membership?
 
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Per the Philadelphia Inquirer (and as anyone who read this morning's thread before it was deleted already knew) Boardman is requesting 3.8% budget cuts from department heads and will be taking "more aggressive actions" in the future.
This is bad news (and this other thing seems like bad news, too, LOL) ... except that it's good that Boardman is moving on the problem now.

We've known of soon-to-retire CEOs who let things slide until they left the company and the successor inherited the mess.
 
I don't like self appointed censors, especially when they hide behind a computer, but agree that it's good that Boardman isn't spending his last year as CEO just grinning and doing a Farewell Tour on Beech Grove!
 
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Yes I noticed the earlier Boardman posting was missing (deleted except to admins).

Seems TrainOrders has had no problems with Gene Poons posting of same...it's now grown to be a 4 page thread.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3959079,3959079#msg-3959079

Page 3 has Gene Poon telling of a rumor (he trusts the source) that Auto Train will have major changes

Page 3 also mentions & comments about the fact that Our forum deleted the original post & then put it back up.
 
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I believe that one (or more) of the admins tend to be a bit skittish about the possibility of publishing something that got "leaked" on here. This sort of thing happened back in August over the AGR 2.0 leak
If I'm not mistaken, I saw it "leaked" on Trainorders before I saw it here!
 
Yep, Train orders may have its faults, but they do seem to scoop AU on some breaking "inside stories", and as long as the Moderators and powers that be agree with the post, they tend not to hide or censor posts!
 
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Yes I noticed the earlier Boardman posting was missing (deleted except to admins).

Seems TrainOrders has had no problems with Gene Poons posting of same...it's now grown to be a 4 page thread.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3959079,3959079#msg-3959079

Page 3 has Gene Poon telling of a rumor (he trusts the source) that Auto Train will have major changes

Page 3 also mentions & comments about the fact that Our forum deleted the original post & then put it back up.
For those of us who aren't members over at TrainOrders and thus can't read past page one, may I ask what exactly was reported in regards to Auto Train?
 
Wow. I made the original post. Would have been nice if an admin had sent me a message to let me know they were taking it down. Being a long time member here, I believe I have earned that small courtesy.
 
To A Voice...Gene Poon was not forthcoming w any detail re Auth Train changes rumored.
 
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Yes I noticed the earlier Boardman posting was missing (deleted except to admins).

Seems TrainOrders has had no problems with Gene Poons posting of same...it's now grown to be a 4 page thread.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3959079,3959079#msg-3959079

Page 3 has Gene Poon telling of a rumor (he trusts the source) that Auto Train will have major changes

Page 3 also mentions & comments about the fact that Our forum deleted the original post & then put it back up.
For those of us who aren't members over at TrainOrders and thus can't read past page one, may I ask what exactly was reported in regards to Auto Train?
What was said by Mr. Poon is pretty much what was stated above "major upcoming changes". The only other mention (I could find via search of this thread) of the Auto Train was regarding the 7 hour turnaround ("unloaded, cleaned, serviced, restocked, loaded and dispatched") of the train each day.
 
Wow. I made the original post. Would have been nice if an admin had sent me a message to let me know they were taking it down. Being a long time member here, I believe I have earned that small courtesy.
And it would be a courtesy if they shared their reasoning with other members publicly, since it affects us all.

Now events have outrun the censorship event, since the info has "leaked" into the newspapers. So would it be possible to restore some or all of the Comments into this thread?

I'm highly amused to think that anyone could have thought that a letter sent to Amtrak's 20,000+ employees could somehow remain "secret". They've been remarkably good at keeping secrets about the CAF order. But no way to keep a letter implying big changes in some working conditions, possible job cuts, or even train-offs -- that's going public for sure. And it should. After all, the owners of the company -- in effect that's us, taxpayers, whose puny $1.5 Billion or so keeps the operation going -- have some right to know as well.
 
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You probably owe them the courtesy of complaining to them in private, it's not like you don't know who they are.
He probably would have if they had bothered to inform him of their secretive moderating strategy. How else was he supposed to know about this? Is every OP supposed to perform periodic searching for their own posts just to see if they've been silently hidden from view by an overly protective moderator?

Wow. I made the original post. Would have been nice if an admin had sent me a message to let me know they were taking it down. Being a long time member here, I believe I have earned that small courtesy.
And it would be a courtesy if they shared their reasoning with other members publicly, since it affects us all. Now events have outrun the censorship event, since the info has "leaked" into the newspapers. So would it be possible to restore some or all of the Comments into this thread? I'm highly amused to think that anyone could have thought that a letter sent to Amtrak's 20,000+ employees could somehow remain "secret". They've been remarkably good at keeping secrets about the CAF order. But no way to keep a letter implying big changes in some working conditions, possible job cuts, or even train-offs -- that's going public for sure. And it should. After all, the owners of the company -- in effect that's us, taxpayers, whose puny $1.5 Billion or so keeps the operation going -- have some right to know as well.
Agreed 100%.

Too bad whichever moderator is doing this is still silently hiding in the shadows rather than explaining their reasoning.
 
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