Steve,
You hit this one on the barrel head. Attention to detail, right down to the the proofreading of websites and brochures, is what makes successful tourist rail operations work. I am afraid that by its very business structure/design, the Railstar Loop is destined to fail or, at best, be a third rate operation (no matter how much money CHS is willing to throw at it) and, as some have postulated, maybe that was the plan all along at some level.
If this same lack of control and care applies to the the "to be determined" equipment, track and switches, reservation system, scheduling, etc. we are looking at a half -baked operation and possibly a dangerous one - Let's hope Peter can get on board and shove CHS off to the side - only then might there be some hope of re-constructing what was once a world class operation. My guess is, though, that this will be much harder said than done and the operation will dwindle along for awhile.
This does, however, lead to South Park's point. Perhaps a failing operation at the Loop would attract enough political capital to get legislation in place to wrest control of the Park from CHS and place it under better caretakers.
Government works in backward ways - rarely pro-active. There was a very dangerous unprotected highway intersection near Carmel, Ca. Several people had been killed and injured. The cost of putting in and maintaining a light at the intersection was something like $230K. When the wife of one of my friends was maimed in an accident there, I went to CalTrans (the CA version of CDOT) to see what could be done. They showed me a chart that indicated that a light was not justified - at least not until there had be 10 fatalities at the site - YES! 10 people had to loose their lives before the light would be considered!
Bottom line, until something fairly catastrophic happens at the Loop, government is not likely to get involved...but that should not keep us from getting our "ducks in a row" for when and if there is a opportunity to make a positive change.
Karell