Re: C&TS 5-year plan--passenger car problem

Hello,
The 5-Year Plan looks like a great plan an I hope it can be accoplished as planned. The only problem is that I could not follow the logic of the passenger cars fleet. It states, "....utilization of the passenger car fleet varies widely... in 2001, a year that 55,000 were carried, on five occasions the boxcar coaches were pressed into service, with the peak day of 820 riders carrried. Projecting annual ridership of 75,000, on approximately 30 days the 634 passenger capacity of the 19 coaches will be exceeded.
Based upon these facts, the plan proposes to build only two additional coaches which at the most might might hold 48 people each at the most. So running the math of 634 plus 96 results in 730 riders if no coaches are in the shops for repairs.
I would suggest that since this is a five year plan and the economy of scale usually helps when ordering parts, cars, etc., that the number of planned coaches should be increased to at least four and preferably five or six coaches. Four more coaches would allow the railraod to carry the peak 2001 ridership day. The plan also wants to increase marketing which should result in the peak ridership day to be even higher than experinced in 2001. The 5-Year plan is very aggressive stating that they could make their goals with four operating steam locomotives and at the same time planning on trying to reach a higher goal of getting six to eight steam locomotives operating. I respectfully suggest that that plan be eqaully aggressive and increase the number of revenue seats to help pay for the additional locomotives in service.
Sincerely,
Andy Roth