C&TS year end report by Rich Tower

I found this posted on trainorders.com and hopefully Rich will not be upset with me for copying it here:
"The last day of regularly-scheduled service on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad was Sunday, October 15. For the 142 day-season, we carried 38,483 passengers on scheduled trains compared to 31,806 last year, an increase of 6,677 passengers, or 21.0%. (These numbers come from the counts provided by the train conductors.)
"In addition, we carried 1103 revenue passengers on special and charter trains compared to 710 last year. The combined total for 2006 was 39,586, an increase of 7,070 passengers or 21.7% over the 32,516 carried last year. We still have one more freight charter plus the Christmas trains, so the totals for 2006 are not yet complete.
"These numbers are encouraging, particularly compared to the 30,061 carried in 2004, 16,829 in 2003 and 24,883 in 2002. However, we still have a ways to go to reach the 50,000-60,000+ level regularly seen in the 1990s and 2000-2001. Next year, with 4 locomotives in service, we will offer daily trains in each direction for the entire season for the first time since 2002, and we look forward to continued growth in passengers and revenue.
"As time permits, I will prepare a more comprehensive review of our ridership in 2006. Thanks to everyone associated with the railroad for a great year!
"Richard Tower
Secretary-Treasurer
C&TS Management Corp."
As best as I can tell from far away, the CTSMC team has done a great job this year. As Rich alludes, there is still work to do to get ridership (and cash flow from operations) back to the "good ole days", but this year seems to be a great start.
JBW