Re: Why Third Rail? Big $$$, Little Gain

Hey, Russ, let's do the math. We can make this pay.

C&TS has a season of roughly 150 days. This yields roughly 300 trips per season between Alamosa and Antonito. Under current passenger counts of less than 5 passengers each way per day, we would have about 1500 tickets sold per season. SLRG currently charges $20 round trip, but lets figure $25. This gives us gross receipts of about $37500 per year.

We would need a minimum of 2 locomotives, which we should be able to acquire, rebuild and transport for only, say, $5million. Add in another $million or much more for a shop, a couple cars, plus an unknown number of $millions for track, paperwork, red tape, bribes, etc. Oh, and a bunch more to cover the operating deficit.

"Waddaya mean you won't give me $10million! I'm a nice guy, I'll pay it back!"

Steve

ps. I'll be riding theToltec Gorge Limited again next year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2009 01:45PM by Steve Forney.