Amtrak & Sequestration

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I'll tell my friend that lost his job that he was just being a chicken little.

Same with my family when we have to make do with less now that my pay's been cut.

I'm sure that'll make them feel much better.
 
Ryan: I could answer you back but I thought this forum would not be personal of nature (thought a moderator would step in). Guess I'll leave the site. Thanks to all for the short stay. Bye.;
 
I'm sorry that I made it too personal by belittling people that are actually getting impacted by the sequestration.

Oh, wait - that was you that did that! Silly me.

Maybe, just perhaps, we should ACTUALLY STICK TO DISCUSSING AMTRAK and nobody's feelings will get bent out of shape.
 
Personally I think you have both over done things a bit. Sorry!

As for this:

USN-retired said:
Ryan: I could answer you back but I thought this forum would not be personal of nature (thought a moderator would step in). Guess I'll leave the site. Thanks to all for the short stay. Bye.;
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You didn't use the report this post function and you didn't even give the staff 45 minutes before you made this subsequent post. We don't live on the forum, and we certainly don't get paid to be here 24/7. Heck, we don't get paid at all! This is a labor of love for the staff, myself included. We do this around our lives, devoting what time we can after families, work, etc.

I'm not sure that we would have taken any action no matter what, but again you didn't even give the moderator staff time to notice the post, much less react to it.
 
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AlanB said:
.Personally I think you have both over done things a bit. Sorry!
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Sorry, I tend to get a bit bent out of shape when people regurgitating political talking points that have nothing to do with Amtrak insist that this is no big deal, when this is impacting my family and friends in a deeply personal way. We've been told at my company that things will be OK through the end of the FY, but if Congress doesn't get their act together by September, we may have some issues. Being the sole wage earner for my family of 4 and looking at trying to find a job I'm this economy doesn't exactly put me in the best frame of mind to be told that I'm just am Chicken Little and everything will be just fine.
I don't care if its 80 billion, 8 billion or anything in between. The fact is, the cuts are being made in a foolish fashion designed to maximize pain. It's exactly what they were intended to do in order to force Congress to come up with a better plan. They have failed miserably, and now we're paying for it.

Is it as bad as the media is making out to be? Or course not. Their job is to hype thing to make money for themselves, not report on things factually and honestly. But to claim that there will be no impact is profoundly ignorant and personally insulting.

Now, lets get back to discussing trains, shall we? :)
 
When people come on the board to post only non Amtrak and non rail articles, specially of the provocative kind, it does irk me a little and I was thinking of saying "good riddance", but I won't. :)

I am wondering though, coming back to Amtrak, if this will delay the delivery of Viewliner IIs due to Amtrak's inability to pay for them using the cashflow that they thought they'd have.
 
jis said:
I am wondering though, coming back to Amtrak, if this will delay the delivery of Viewliner IIs due to Amtrak's inability to pay for them using the cashflow that they thought they'd have.
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From the article linked in the first post in this thread:
You and I cannot peer over the shoulder of the bean counters at Amtrak, but the latest financial reports (covering just the first two months of fiscal 2013) provide some hints of how it could dodge bullets. In those two months alone, Amtrak spent $67 million less than budgeted for capital programs, mostly due to delays in engineering programs (a saving of $42 million) and the timing of payments for new electric locomotives and long-distance passenger cars (a saving of $20 million). In other words, delays in spending can have the same effect as cuts in spending. And here’s another budget line that begs close attention: Salaries, wages, and benefits were $25 million over budget during October-November, which comes to a startling $150 million at an annual rate. However, I am told that this has a lot to do with recovery from Hurricane Sandy and the salary overages are trending down. My point is that there are plenty of branches to bend or trim before dropping trains, and Amtrak’s statement seems to acknowledge that.
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Speculation and conjecture, yes, but IMHO it is decent speculation and conjecture.
EDIT: I posted before I meant too... I was going to say that this can only go on so long before it impacts deliveries, IMHO.
 
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Back in the '80s I used to thank my stars when any press article acknowledged that there was any passenger train running in tis country at all! We have come a long way when we have to worry about whether they know that Acelas have Coach or Business Class I guess :)
 
Montana Mike, you and Shanghai nailed it. We are looking at the federal budget increasing slightly next year and the hue and cry is amazing. Around here they call the big budget push back method the "Firefighters First" method, i.e. the government lays off firefighters first to make the budget cut look dangerous, instead of asking everyone to cut spending 1%. It is sad, because most people don't recognize the gamesmanship.

Amtrak is a legitimate government service. It should do its best to keep the amount of federal assistance low, but it is in the national interest to maintain a strong passenger rail system and the amount Amtrak requires is miniscule next to other programs. And a lot of GOP governors and Senators agree with that even if the party leadership sees Amtrak as a useful Pinata to whack on in the name of cutting spending.

montana mike said:
This discussion while interesting is missing the big picture. The federal budget, will total over $3.6 TRILLION in FY 2013. The so-called cuts amount to $85 Billion (or 2.36%)-of which 50%, or $42 Billion come out of the DOD. The remaining $42 Billion or so is spread over the 11 other federal agencies. That's nothing!!! If you look at what the federal government spent in FY 2012 and then look at the projected spending for FY 2013 (look at the Congressional Record, it's the only thing in Washington that is just the facts, no political spin from either side of the aisle), you will note that even with the Sequester the feds will spend several Billion dollars MORE overall in FY 2013 than in FY 2012. 11 of the 12 federal agencies will receive slightly more funding even with the reduction. Only DOD will receive slightly less.

These "crises" are all manufactured. I spent years in the federal government and to see high level federal bosses say the world will come to an end if they "only" receive a small increase in funds instead of a larger one is nonsense. I note with great dismay that if you take out the cuts in uniformed military people over the past few years the number of federal employees actually went up, not down, by 113,000.

The GAO in their annual report on federal government waste in 2011 stated that $209 Billion could be cut from federal spending due to duplicative and fraudulent spending. One would think we could somehow figure out how to carve $85 billion out of what GAO came up with!

This isn't a GOP or Democrat issue, this is an American issue--we need to get our act back together and soon.
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From Politico:

The official tally for DOT cuts in 2013 from the sequester?$646 million is a direct chop from that hard-won Hurricane Sandy aid bill. The nearly $11 billion in relief to transit agencies from that bill got slashed by $545 million...

... Amtrak ($77 million)...

...The line-by-line spending update from OMB represents the most comprehensive list of cuts since a September report...
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This may be interesting for some folks on here:

Chart is courtesy of APTA (American Public Transit Association)

SEQUESTER_Chart_3_4_13.JPG
 
Looking at Amtrak's overall operations, that's next to nothing in the scheme of things. Amtrak is on track to come in well below that as it stands, and that's with Sandy having an outsized impact on YTD figures: YTD post-adjustment loses are on $146.1m, which trends out to $438.5m (numbers are off due to rounding). Some of the operating losses are likely to be offset by some emergency cash, some of the expenses won't be as far off-budget: For example, salaries, wages, and benefits were both below last year for both December and January, and were about $1.3m ahead of budget (that is to say, cheaper than projected) between the two months. From what I can tell, the main issues were:
(1) A timing issue on employee benefits. Benefits were better than budget in December and January, slightly behind in October, and in the toilet in November. Whether this was having to pay out on something because of Sandy or just when they paid a bill, I don't know.

(2) Repair work.

(3) Held-away time for crews stranded due to Sandy.

Also, looking over in the forecast column? They basically copied and pasted the YTD figures for revenue vis-a-vis the budget, so I expect that line to look better when the dust settles. Revenue has been well above budget for the last two months and I think the forecast may be exaggerating the expenses to at least some extent.

The highway funding situation ($352m cut b/t interstates and the trust fund) is more likely to cause ulcers somewhere, though. Are there any notes on the FAA's situation (or the TSA, for that matter)?
 
Here is the full Politico summary of how DOT is impacted:

The official tally for DOT cuts in 2013 from the sequester? $1.943 billion, of which $646 million is a direct chop from that hard-won Hurricane Sandy aid bill. The nearly $11 billion in relief to transit agencies from that bill got slashed by $545 million, and $2 billion for highways takes a $101 million haircut. The next largest cut is $637 million from the FAA, $487 million of which goes to personnel. Meanwhile, TSA is getting a $396 million trim - most of that hits frontline security workers. Some popular targets for conservatives will see major reductions this year: Amtrak ($77 million) and the EAS program ($3 million). The IG office is losing $4 million and the NTSB, investigating the Boeing Dreamliner battery fires, loses $5 million in salaries.
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However, knowing you, I thought you'd enjoy a little light reading. so here is a link to OMB's report to the House.
 
Thanks, that's perfect.

So the breakdown is $23M from "Operating Subsidy Grants", $48M from "Capital and Debt Service Grants" and $6M from "Grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation".

Anyone know what that last $6M is coming from?
 
Ryan said:
Thanks, that's perfect.
So the breakdown is $23M from "Operating Subsidy Grants", $48M from "Capital and Debt Service Grants" and $6M from "Grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation".

Anyone know what that last $6M is coming from?
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That could be the portion of the HSIPR grants that are allocated to go to Amtrak this fiscal year. so the 160 mph track and constant tension catenary upgrades in NJ may be delayed due to the haircut.
The next major jump off the cliff moment is when the FY2013 continuing resolutions - for the agencies that have not had their appropriations bill passed (I think DOD is the only one) - expire on March 27. I expect the sequestration will get fixed in a budget deal for the FY2013 appropriations. If not, then much of the government shuts down on March 28.
 
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