Re: Caution - learning from history - short and long trains

dougvv Wrote:
=======================================================

> In the railroad era prior to public being
> transported by airplanes, long distance trains
> were profitable.


Not exactly. A few were profitable, but not even a majority. Some studies have claimed that nationwide the passenger trains have been in the red since before WWI.

To be more precise, a study of the D&RGW "Report of Passenger Operations" of 1942 reprinted by the CRRM shows the following on a direct cost basis(page 26):

1940: only the special trains made a profit

1941: profits on trains 8 (EB Prospector,) 19/20 (Mountaineer, Grand Jct - Denver,) and special trains.

both years show an over-all loss.

Biggest Losses were: 1940, 1941
1/2 (Senic Limited) <$249,762>, <$215,746>
5/6 (Exposition Flyer) <$293,919>, <$154,044>

Trains 19/20 showed <$33,097>, +$16,030

Other trains were[1]

3/4 (Denver-Pueblo section of MP's St Louis-Denver run) <$54,000>, <$51,000>
7/8 (Prospector, original version, Denver-SLC) ---, <$1,000>
9/10 (Denver-Pueblo local) <$10,000>, <$7,000>
11/12 (SLC-Marysville, local) <$68,000>, <$64,000>

15/16 (Colorado & New Mexico Express, Denver-Salida) <$44,000>, <$62,000>
115/116 (Colorado & New Mexico Express, Pueblo-Alamosa) <$22,000>, <$16,000>
115/116 (San Juan) <$79,000>, <$78,000>
315/316 (Shavano <$42,000>, ---

319/320 (Mountaineer, Grand Jct-Montrose) <$32,000> ,<$31,000>

[1] rounding off on these.

I'll let others draw conclusions here.

Also of note is that D&RGW, like most Western roads, saw much higher revenue June-August than in the rest of the year.

hank