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

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

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• 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
• File Type:
  [PDF - 533.91 KB ]