A fellow rail-fan offered me a fact the other day that stunned me. I wanted to try and verify whether the information truly was accurate.He said that Amtrak pays out over 150 million a year in pension benefits to individuals (and their spouses, I presume) who have NEVER worked for Amtrak.
I "questioned" the comment:
Since Amtrak was formed in 1971, these retirees (presuming they retired at 60) would be 92 years old, today. There surely would not be many of these individuals (even their spouses) still alive to even collect the money. So this is what confuses me.
So what is the "story" ?
Was it part of the original agreement when Amtrak was established that it pay into the retirement funds of numerous railroads for "x" number of years or for "x" number of dollars ?
Does it make sense that Amtrak should be responsible for ANY pension money to individuals who never worked a day for the corporation ? It doesn't to me.
If it IS true that Amtrak must make these pension payments, why (to my knowledge) is this never addressed to Congress ? I have never heard of any Amtrak CEO ever mentionimg this extra expense at any of the numerous hearings that Amtrak execs are present at.
This seems like an enormous financial burden if it IS true.
So I would appreciate any input related to this topic. Perhaps someone knows the REAL facts about the matter.