July 2016 Monthly Performance Report

[afigg]

The July 2016 monthly performance report has been posted. I don't have time this weekend to post much of an analysis; others can write their own take on it. The short story is that July 2016 was a good month financially with Amtrak running an adjusted net operating surplus of $10 million for the month. For the month of July, ridership was up for the NE Regionals, state corridor & LD trains overall, down for the Acelas.

 

[neroden]

Amtrak has stopped reporting the incredibly useful graphs of Class I induced delays. But it's obvious from which trains have the worst delays that CSX is the biggest source of delay now.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Overall, a good month in a not-good year.

Looks like (p. 1-4, Year To Date) $360 million set aside for capital spending has not been spent, due to "timing" of engineering and mechanical projects.

I'm assuming that the funds budgeted for capital spending have gone to cover the shortfall from the higher operating losses.

Could a standstill in payments to CAF for delayed-on-purpose Viewliner IIs be buried in these figures?

I dunno nuthin. What's an engineering project vs a mechanical project?

 

[neroden]

It's become clear that CAF is the one delaying the Viewliners on purpose. A large portion of the $360 million set aside for capital spending and not yet spent is definitely earmakred for those.

 

[PRR 60]

It's become clear that CAF is the one delaying the Viewliners on purpose. A large portion of the $360 million set aside for capital spending and not yet spent is definitely earmakred for those.

Making a minor modification to Hanlon's razor, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetency."

 

[neroden]

By "on purpose" I mean that the IG discovered that CAF had unilaterally (without consulting Amtrak) decided to slow down production.

...arguably because they're not competent to produce at the rate they originally promised. :-(