Ron Keagle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So which type of motive power makes
> the most profit for the GC? This seems like the
> central question, but I have not yet heard it
> asked, let alone answered.
Ron,
Someone would have to look at the GCRy financial books to make a positive determination, and we would have to wait for a couple of years without steam to see if the ridiship does fall off, and we would have to eliminate extenuating factors such as the down turn in the economy as the reason for any reduction in ridership vs. the lack of steam.
As far as I know (take it with a grain of salt) the steam program has been profitable up to this point in the GCRy's history. It would have been shut down before now if not. Also take into accout that they only ran steam during the bussiest time of the year, thus had ridership numbers to cover the costs of the program.
Everyone's profits (save for bars and strip clubs) has declined over the past couple of years. I would think it's safe to assume that the margin of profit for the GCRy also dropped.
An easy way to increase profit is to reduce expenses.
I'm sure shutting down the steam program saved lots of money, not just on fuel, but by every person who was fired (wages, workmans' comp, social security, medicare, etc.) that were needed to perform maintiance on the steamers. Don't forget all the local, state and federal inspection costs (Form 4) and such.
From a financial standpoint it makes perfect sense to close down the steam program to see imediate cost savings. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense to tout the "green" factor to get headlines for free advertising. From a Marketing & Financial stand point I'm sure they will be watching the numbers over the next few years to determine if shutting down the steam program hurt or helped revenue.
If they see that having steam will increase the bottom line I'm sure they'll bring it back and with some spin on the whole "green" stuff, aka BS.
Curtis F.
