Is Chama pricing itself out of the market?

The ridership numbers for this year came as a shock. Something is obviously terribly wrong. And like most marketing things, we can speculate until the cows come home and most likely know little more than before we started. But what the heck, my speculation is as good as anybody's.
1. I wonder if Chama is pricing themselves out of the market. Did people used to linger in Chama because it was cheaper than Durango, Santa Fe or Taos? Did folks come from Albuquerque and Denver because it was a cheap weekend outing? In the old days we only worried about gas prices. But now it's the combined impact of higher gas, motel prices, and train tickets.
2. Perhaps the long running problems facing the railroad and the newscoverage are having a cummulative effect on the collective perception of Chama as a fun place to go, especially among the day/weekend trippers from Denver to Albuquerque. The correlary is success begets success.
3. Less than daily service might be having a bigger impact that simply the reduction in seats. Now you have to plan, and impulse trips are more difficult...whether you're just driving by on vacation, or deciding on a last minute outing.
4. Marketing plan. This one scares me because it can suck up a lot of dollars that are also needed to fix track and equipment. Black Bart proved you can't survive on marketing alone. But Black Bart was a good marketer....got record ridership if you can believe his numbers. I think the appropriate cliche here is a poor plan vigorously pursued is better than a good plan poorly pursued. My guess is the need is not so much for a grand plan as a talented individual who lives and breathes marketing and can make things happen. But those folks do tend to be in short supply, especially in any organization that is owned by the government. Where is Black Bart when we need him.
Just when I thought things were getting better.
Damn.
JBW