CoNO: All things City of New Orleans

I've had three CofNO round trips in three years and never been late.

Route Review: ntbraymer

Ouch; I was scheduled to ride this train, but cancelled. Now that I've read the article, I'm glad I did. The big issues per this blogger seem to be the staffing, the food service, and the consist. Pretty much everything?

Ridin’ on the City of New Orleans
<SNIP>
According to Amtrak, in FY2014, the CNO generated $22 million in revenue. No one–including Amtrak—knows what its costs were because Amtrak’s cost accounting systems don’t track and report any route’s actual costs; rather, they collect system costs into category national aggregates and then allocate the totals back out to each route based on management assumptions. This system is notoriously inaccurate. Amtrak still hasn’t released its 2014 annual report due to accounting irregularities, and its financial officers have emphasized in the past that reported route costs are “not additive” (meaning that the total is less than the sum of the stated parts). Amtrak’s make-believe accounting system assigned more than $46.5 million in system costs to the CNO in FY14.

A train with only three coaches and 1 ½ sleepers cannot hope to earn enough revenue to cover its costs, whatever they might be.
<SNIP>
To provide food service on the CNO, Amtrak runs a “Cross Country Café” car (“CCC”), which is a former dining car hull that was rebuilt in 2010 into a diner/snack bar configuration. The dining car galley on the lower deck was left as-is. (The Sightseer Lounge car on the CNO is unstaffed, and the crews have appropriated its lower deck snack bar and seating area as their own crew lounge). The snack bar end of the CCC car sells the usual assortment of snacks and beverages, and is staffed with a single employee, who is rarely very busy.

While many have criticized the design of these CCC cars, the issue with their use on the CNO is not the car but its staffing. To serve dinner and breakfast on #58, and breakfast and lunch on 59, Amtrak is now assigning just one employee to do everything: greet and seat passengers, provide and explain menus, take orders, set and clear tables, microwave and plate meals (in the galley), serve meals (up and down the stairs many times), collect payment from coach passengers, make adjustments for passengers who have complaints, procure and serve alcoholic beverages from the snack bar end of the car, and do the necessary record-keeping with meal checks and inventories. On many trips, when passenger loads meet or exceed the average, one employee, despite heroic effort, simply cannot accomplish this. The result is terrible service, combined with mediocre food served on cheap throw-away dishes and glassware. The snack bar employee provides no assistance to the dining car employee; occasionally, the sleeping car attendant will step back into the diner and help clear and re-set tables.<SNIP>

Why would they run and up and down the stairs, have they removed the dumb waiter?

While the food could fit in, I doubt the LSA could fit into the dumbwaiter along with the food!

Is there no chef downstairs?
If they are expected to cook and serve , then that certainly is stretching things.
much more of that and they may fit in the dumb waiter !

According to Amtrak, in FY2014, the CNO generated $22 million in revenue. No one–including Amtrak—knows what its costs were because Amtrak’s cost accounting systems don’t track and report any route’s actual costs; rather, they collect system costs into category national aggregates and then allocate the totals back out to each route based on management assumptions. This system is notoriously inaccurate. Amtrak still hasn’t released its 2014 annual report due to accounting irregularities, and its financial officers have emphasized in the past that reported route costs are “not additive” (meaning that the total is less than the sum of the stated parts). Amtrak’s make-believe accounting system assigned more than $46.5 million in system costs to the CNO in FY14.
...

this person has clearly never worked in a corporate finance department. some costs are always allocated in any business such as shared assets (like equipment). perhaps amtrak's accounting system is less make believe (many large corporations use the same accounting system) than the problem is large "system" costs.

I agree with you, Suburban Station. AFAIK, all transport companies allocate costs from a pool to specific route. Conversely, nobody makes conductors/pilots/drivers submit itemized expense reports for their trip at the end of each run (or, sure, they want receipts, but they're not collected in the belief that they represent "the cost" of a run). Particularly maintenance (how many millimeters of brake pad did you use, Mr. Engineer? How much bearing life did you use up? Please estimate the depreciation caused by your trip....)

Just about the only expense that you can really pin to a route is direct catering loaded onboard and *maybe* trackage fees paid to the freights. Everything else (labor, fuel, maintenance, station staffing, rolling stock, overhead, marketing, ticket/res systems) is allocated back to routes on some pooled basis that blends what's being used (engines, coaches, fuel, food, labor) and some kind of "per" (per run, consist, coach, mile, hour, dollar...)

We do know that the 2014 Annual Report is missing, and so we have only the "YTD Sep 30 2014" numbers, unaudited. The real problem, as far as I know, is that they don't really have a way of assigning asset costs to routes, as if they "leased" their equipment from a lessor who charged a rate sufficient to be able fund replacements. Instead, dating back to Amtrak's creation, LD rolling stock is reckoned as essentially free/gifted. (somehow they manage to persuade the states to pay "full" PRIIA costs without actually revealing in the accounting what those assets costs were).

Arlington I read somewhere that there were issues with the capital accounting data. The same issues that led them to remove the annual reports a while back and delayed the issuance of the fiscal 13 reports. Now that they seem to be, at long last, issuing financial statements perhaps that's a sign they're ready to start reporting on capital. I don't blame them for not releasing terms of state payments since they are theoretically supposed to compete. No competitive company would freely give that away.

P. 50, pension plan frozen

Does anyone actually know if there is a chef or not ?

David Benton wrote:Does anyone actually know if there is a chef or not ?

There has not been a chef on the CONO since the July service changes.

You can also tell this by the menu, as the steak is gone, (as it needs to be grilled), no scrambled eggs, and the like.

http://www.amtrakfoodfacts.com/lp.do?sk ... 2CA4E&EV=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ken

I took the City in August. It did indeed appear that there was only one dining car employee and that the sleeping attendant helped when possible.

It also seemed the other employee, the snack bar attendant did not help. From order to plate arrival took about 45 minutes.

The CONO may not have a chef, but it may soon have a full baggage car.

Anyone know which stops are smoking stops on the CoNO (northbound)? From the public timetable it looks like Memphis and Carbondale. Any others?