Summary: Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO analyzed: (1) the National Railroad Passenger Corporation's (Amtrak) alternatives to closing the Jacksonville sales office; (2) Amtrak's estimate of the expected savings from closing that office; (3) the productivity of the Jacksonville office and of Amtrak's four other reservation offices; and (4) expenses for the five offices.
GAO found that: (1) Amtrak considered alternatives to closing the Jacksonville office and one other office, based on most efficiently using equipment in the remaining offices, affecting as few employees as possible, and maintaining offices in different regions; (2) Amtrak estimated that it would save about $2.4 million annually by closing the Jacksonville office; (3) by some indicators, the Jacksonville office ranked first among the five offices for the first 9 months of fiscal year 1986 and, by other indicators, it ranked lower; and (4) wages and employee benefits accounted for 66 percent of Amtrak's total costs for operating its reservation offices, telecommunications accounted for about 29 percent, and the remaining 5 percent were for office, utilities, and other expenses.
