Personally, if it were possible, I would ride the train all the way from Alamosa to Silverton, outside, standing in the open gon. Even if it was raining. (I might come inside for a while during a blizzard) Unfortunately, not everyone shares my extreme passion for the narrow gauge.
I have a wife, and two daughters.(6 and 2)
While they enjoy trains quite a bit. (at least partially because they get to see daddy behaving like a kid in a candy store) For them, a shorter ride is better than a longer ride. A couple Saturdays ago, we left our house in Colorado Springs, ate breakfast in Woodland park, drove through the beautiful fall colors to Cripple Creek. Shopped in the very nice gift shop at the Cripple Creek and Victor narrow gauge. Rode the train. Walked around town a little. Drove back to the Springs. Ate a late lunch and were still home in time to make it to my daughter's soccer game. Now, while the Cripple Creek and Victor is
practically a toy compared to the C&TSRR, it is steam, has a great whistle, burns coal (I LOVE that smell) and has very pretty scenery. I enjoyed it as a railfan, and our family had a GREAT Saturday together. The thing that made it all possible though, is that Cripple creek is only slightly more than an hour from the Springs.
When we go to Chama, it pretty much takes a whole weekend and lots of $$$. While a shorter trip option might be good for those folks "just passing through" I'm not sure that it helps my or anyone else's situation that has to travel any kind of distance to get to Chama. (Almost everyone) If I'm gonna travel all that distance and spend the night in a hotel or campground, I might as well get a good train ride out of the deal. My wife and kids might not agree, but "what else is there to do, and we traveled all this way to get here."
I don't know, I can't even seem to agree with myself on this subject. While a shorter ride might make it easier to convince non railfans to come and ride, I don't know if it's worth it to most people to drive 5 or 6 hours to a remote mountain town to take a "short" train ride.
The paradox of the C&TSRR will always be: the asset that saved the line in the 60's. Its remoteness, is always going to be the obstacle to it becoming a thriving tourist attraction.
Sorry that I can't offer more in the way of "solutions". Just some thoughts I had.
