“One steam engine with 15,000 tractive effort will not be able to make a train like what the local businesses here have come to depend on. Ridership will be WAY down if that's all they have.”
Well, according to the data that Mr. Midyette posted above, Railstar could have trains that are only 1-2 cars shorter then those of the GTL Inc. That doesn’t seem like that much of a loss. Are the local businesses are running that close to operating at a loss?
Of course, my comment depends on if Railstar manages to fill each train and I think you have some very good points concerning this. While I have no idea what Railstar has planned for their reservation system and web site in the future, it does seem to be lacking right now. I hope they correct this in the very near future because this kind of thing was needed long before now.
Maybe instead of SHOW US THE TRAIN, the saying should be SHOW US THE RIDERSHIP. Then again, the CHS only promised a train (Please correct me if I’m wrong with that statement since I’ not aware of everything that was said). Did they ever promise to match the ridership of the GTL Inc. in 2005?
This leads me to speculation. What will 2006 look like? Will Railstar be using #9 & #12 to run two trains of 4-5 car trains? Twice as many departures from Devils Gate and Silver Plume and 2-3 times the passenger capacity of the GTL Inc. Of course, the extra cars would most likely not bring in more profit since the extra revenue would need to go to the extra maintenance of running two locomotive instead of one like the GTL Inc. did. Also, still no back-up power until #74 comes on line or they get a diesel of a good size.
It looks like Railstar has a good handle on getting the train. Still a ways to go but a good start. Now let hope that they can do the same with PR and advertising.
By the way, since the town’s businesses depends so much on the ridership of the Georgetown Loop, have the business, as a group, offered to try and help with web design, advertising or whatever may help get the area ready for the 2005 season? Or is there such a division between Railstar/CHS and Georgetown that corporation would not be possible?
