There is an interesting post on the Dead Goat by Jay listing the ridership of the C&T. Looks like it was running in the high 50s in the late 1990s with 1998 being the peak year at 68k. The post is about halfway down the first page. Although the site is premium now you can (or at least I can...maybe I got grandfathered in somehow since I've met Jay a few times) still read the posts, just not post any comments.
I have heard that the final years of the DRGW it was hauling about 133k to Silverton and that the high for the D&S was about 200k to Silverton in that apparently magical year of 1998. The most recent numbers I have heard was 133k to Silverton, 30k to Cascade & 40k on special events. I don't have the slightest idea if these numbers are correct & am interested in any verification. At first glance it seems counter intuitive as the D&S runs three full trains to Silverton in season although the early train is rarely sold out & there is usually space on the weekends. And with the K-36s the trains are longer (but the premium cars at the end of each train don't hold the capacity of a coach). The DRGW trains were ALWAYS packed and if you weren't in your seat 30 minutes before departure the railroad would sell it off to a standby. One of my earliest memories of Durango was being in line at 5 AM hoping something would show up.
The Durango Herald will publish publicity that ridership is up by 5.6% or whatever but shows what the base load is.
Any constructive comments about ridership would be interesting as well as ridership on Colorado's other tourist railroads.
I hope this thread does not become a diatribe about the management of either railroad or the Dead Goat.
Husker Hank
Durango CO