Intercity passenger rail : potential financial issues in the event that Amtrak undergoes liquidation

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Government Accountability Office
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Intercity passenger cars
  • Passenger trains
  • Passenger transportation
  • Government funding
  • Subsidies
  • Financial analysis
  • Financial responsibility
  • Amtrak system
  • Budgets
  • Federal government
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• Publication/ Report Number:
  GAO-02-871
• Resource Type:
  Policy Statement
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• 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.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/15513/dot_15513_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 533.91 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7a7359a8ae24e9fcc199ce1e379996c42db329949da9192b855fda5fc478a257899518fdc9cb8dea46717b32b4faf83ad11794a8d511ddc6894344a32cb13a4f