Re: Food for thought

It's going to take a while to rebuild the Loop to the level of the Ashby "brand." It took 31 years to build up what they had in Georgetown/Silver Plume before the CHS yanked the rug out from under them. Railstar managed to destroy it in 5 years. I give credit to the current management and staff, especially Phil Johnson, for pulling the railroad back up by its bootstraps. But marketing being what marketing is, the current operation has several year ahead of it to restore the Loop to the world-class operation it was. Having spent a few years in the charter bus business, I can tell you that tour firms now book at least 2 years out from the day(s) the event takes place. Given that it may take 1-2 years for word of mouth to spread, you can see the problem of lead times. Ridership isn't going to instantaneously bounce back on the C&TS either, for the same reason. Marketing is a long, slow slog of getting your brand out there and distinguishing it from everything else that is clamoring for the public's recreational dollar.

Mike