How much is enough?

Clearly there seems to be a big improvement over last year and CTSMC deserves much credit for starting what we hope will be a turnaround of C&TS fortunes.
But the "budget" is something like 37,500 riders? Going back to around 2000 the C&TS was regularly handling 50-60,000 people. Seems to me the top year under Black Bart was 70,000, but some folks felt that number was inflated to impress the Commission. RGRPC handled 50,216 in 2000. Seems to me the rule of thumb was that "breakeven" on operating costs including a reasonable winter shop program was around 60,000 riders....probably more now.
My point is simply to put things in perspective, so that we keep our eye on the long term challenge. CTSMC is undoubtedly doing a good job, and you can't solve all the problems at one time. However whatever caused ridership to drop during the past several years has dug the railroad into a deep hole. Year to year improvement is a good start, but hopefully there is an appreciation of (and beginnings of a marketing and operating plan) that can within a reasonable time frame get ridership and finances back to were they were not all that long ago.
I'm probably singing to the choir here.
John