Summary: Amtrak provides an Annual Operations Report to Congress that shows revenue, cost, and profit or loss on all its train routes in the form of route profitability schedules and an annual audited financial statement. In addition, Amtrak periodically receives congressional requests to provide route profitability schedules at different times of the year. In November 2001, Amtrak changed the way it prepared its route profitability schedules and applied this new method to information previously provided for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. Based on the initial information requested and provided, the schedule totals could not be readily reconciled to the audited financial statements for the corresponding periods. According to Amtrak officials, in order to focus on the operating profitability of Amtrak's routes, they excluded certain items included in the financial statement amounts in preparing the route schedule data. As a result, the totals for both sets of schedules did not tie directly to the audited financial statements. Amtrak also allocated certain profits from its other business activities to its routes as a reduction in route net cost. The allocation of these profits from other business activities undermines the ability to assess whether or not individual routes are operated profitably. Collectively, these practices compromise the usefulness of these schedules to assess route profitability.
