Details:

Corporate Creators:
United States. Government Accountability Office
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Amtrak System Budgets Federal Government Financial Analysis Financial Management Financial Responsibility Government Funding Intercity Passenger Cars Passenger Trains Passenger Transportation Railroad Passenger Service Railroads Rail Transportation Retirement Subsidies Unemployment
Publication/ Report Number:
GAO-02-871
Resource Type:
Policy Statement
Corporate Publisher:
United States. General Accounting Office
Abstract:
If Amtrak had been liquidated on December 31, 2001, secured creditors

and unsecured creditors—including the federal government and Amtrak

employees—and stockholders would have had about $44 billion in

potential claims against and ownership interests in Amtrak’s estate. (See

fig. 1.) The federal government would have been by far the largest

claimant, accounting for about 80 percent of the value of all creditor

claims and ownership interests. It would have had about $14.2 billion in

secured claims against real property, primarily property making up the

Northeast Corridor, and about $4.4 billion in claims against equipment. It

also would have had an ownership interest totaling about $17.1 billion in

Amtrak preferred stock and cumulative unpaid dividends. Of the $4.4

billion in unsecured creditor claims, the largest category would have been

Amtrak’s employees, with potential claims of about $3.2 billion for

payments that Amtrak would owe to terminated employees. (These

payments, stemming from collective bargaining agreements, are called

“labor protection payments.”) It is unlikely that secured and unsecured

creditors’ claims would have been fully satisfied, because—other than the

Northeast Corridor—Amtrak’s assets available to satisfy these claims and

interests (such as equipment and materials and supplies) are old, have

little value, or appear unlikely to have a value equal to the claims against

them. The market value of Amtrak’s most valuable asset (the Northeast

Corridor) has not been tested. While the corridor has substantial value, it

is subject to easements and has billions of dollars of deferred

maintenance. Furthermore, it is not likely that the stockholders would

have received any payment for their ownership interest.


Format:
PDF
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:a05e594cb68023c85df74f418621eea74dabddf5ec077322754f8999bffea6d5
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/15513/dot_15513_DS1.pdf
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