Re: Steam Trains May Have to Clean Up Act

Unfortunately, it is both counting heads and dollars. Mesa Verde is federally owned and the D&S is very privately owned. But in both cases, the number of people impact the bed count in Durango and Cortez, the number of restaurant meals served, all the things people buy while on a trip, and then there's the impact on local services, like water, sewer, emergency services, and the like. The mix of people is a consideration as well. Virtually every tour bus hits Mesa Verde, but not all of them have their guests ride the train. It is a complex situation not easily described even remotely accurately by the gross generalities generated on this list.
The revenues of the D&S are not generally public information, so 200,000 (which the railroad hasn't carried in some time) times $65 is again a gross generality. I do have accesss to the D&S figures, but that is very priveleged information that I wouldn't even begin to share here. Suffice it to say that figures generated by the Durango Chamber of Commerce are good ones to talk about--but how this is pertinent to the Denver Post article is beyond me. This discussion has degenerated into what I will generalize as red neck responses about taking up arms, believing that Alabama is the bastion of _________ (what?--stupidity?), segway bashing, snowboards on flat road beds, and the typical crap that is thrown up in response to real world situations.