Rod - your ideas are interesting and I am not trying to shoot them down. Just some things to consider. The busses run both ways. For the early train the buses would have to leave the opposite station at 6:30AM. The trains now days are pulled by K36's, a big slow freight engine as opposed to the San Juan's K28's which were faster 'passenger' engines. The San Juan was basically a little 4 car train not an 8 car or more freight train. Then you have the problem and expense of calling additional crews and more wear and tear on the engines and rolling stock with less time at each end for repairs and servicing and you have the uncertanties of operating NG in the mountains. A problem with the early train delays or cancels the later train. etc. Having ridden the train numerous times the passengers I observed like the ride and the lunch stop. I think improved track will give you a better more reliable ride, possibly save a little time, be less hard on the equipment and open up some possibilities for short turns on peak days. But two full trains a day would be a stretch. Finally, D&S is on the mainstream tourist routes. D&S has the equipment to field 4 or more separate trains. Cats is remote and hard to get too and there is not much else to attract people other than the train ride. One train each way can certainly handle the current crowds that show up. You would be hard pressed to fill up two trains each way so you would just end up loosing more money. Break even is around 50k riders a season. Ridership last season was in the 40k range. The most ever riders in a season was around 70k and they had 5 or 6 locomotives then. Back in the Kyle days they forecasted 120k riders some day but it never materialized and in fact fell off. To make it Cats has to make the best utilization of it's equipment and crews possible, meaning pack them in. They can't afford to run half enpty trains. Probably the best way to improve profitability is to increase the size of the current trains with a few more passenger cars up to the limit of a single locomotive out of Antonito. Chama can be doubled headed and is already. It is an expensive RR to operate. Just some things to think about.
