Lets have a reality check here

Amid this orgy of D&S bashing with its references to bean counters, deferred maintenance, annulled trains, and stranded passengers, I must ask two questions. How many full time people will the C&TS be employing this winter? If the D&S can’t maintain its railroad with 80 employees, how can the C&TS hope to maintain a safe operation, much less pull itself up out of its hole, with only ¼ or 1/3 of that number? Granted, the D&S puts more mileage on per year, but its equipment and track is already at a higher standard, and therefor has more of a maintenance cushion built in to it. And with their better-equipped shops, a man-hour on the D&S will go farther than one on the C&TS.
Lets not forget that this is a seasonal business, and cutbacks often come in the off season. Although this is a large one, the D&S is a large company. Maybe they over-hired this summer; maybe they were doing some weeding-out of bad apples. It is their business, and they can do whatever they want. The overall attitude is much improved over the Bradshaw years. I road the winter train in ’81 and worked up the courage to ask the surly conductor about business. “Did they lay a lot of people off at the end of the summer season?” I said. “No, they didn’t lay anybody off.” He said. “They fired a lot of people, but they didn’t lay anybody off.”
We all should be careful of complacency regarding the D&S, or any operation, just because they are “successful”. Successful in steam railroading often means making a profit of 1, or 2%. Not enough to support a workforce 33% bigger than it absolutely needs to be.