At the fall board meeting Ken Matzick reported to the Commission that the Farrail/Lerro charter had made an $8,000 profit.
The charter operator gets to keep (or lose) the difference between what the clients pay and what the RR charges. Some charter operators are for profit businesses, others, such as "Steam Specials", are non profit and tend to run charters at cost.
Something that I hope the Commission keeps sight of is the value to the community and employees of a charter. From my point of view, even running a trip at a break even price would be fulfilling one of the RR's missions, economic development in a poor area of the two states.
On the Farrail tour, every motel room in Antonito was booked for the two days the group was there. This was after the season and I doubt if more than a couple of rooms would have been occupied otherwise. Likewise, several motels in Chama were full as a result and there were six days worth of meals eaten in various establishments.
Unlike a typical tourist who gets off the train at 4:30 and heads off, Charter attendees are there for the night before and the night after the event. For the five day Farrail/Lerro event, that was six nights in motels. Since there were a number of single occupancies, there were 39 rooms per night in Antonito. That works out to 234 room nights during the time the group was visiting the C&TS. The average room rate in Chama is above $75 per night, so that represents a minimum of $18,000 in revenue for local motel owners. Add in meals and sundries and you are looking at $25,000 to $30,000 spent in the community by the charter group.
That is also five days of extra pay for employees who are not paid all that much and can probably use the extra pay. In addition, every charter that I have been on takes up a tip collection. The suggested tip was $10 per person per day on the Farrail/Lerro trip, so if everyone paid, that was $500 - $600 per day to be divided among that day's operating employees.
I believe that charters have a value far in excess of the number of riders that are on the charter.
Michael Allen
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2013 08:15AM by trainrider47.
