Railroad Forums
Cowford wrote:"Sure, why not?"Obviously with stops at Norway Ice Cream in South Paris and West Paris with a shuttle service to Trapp Corner store.
Because you'd be missing a great opportunity: You could redeploy the train during the week to operate weekday commuter service between Mechanic Falls and Groveton.
Cannonball wrote:An article in the Boston Globe (2/7/2013) discussing New England ski trains in general and their possible come back.I think this is an interesting article about some "boutique" efforts in certain areas, but for the moment we have yet to see the revival of The Snow Train(s) as they were once known. I am fascinated by the fact that apparently there is now an advocacy group that appears to be solely or perhaps exclusively focused on the Conway Branch.
‘Snow trains’ to the slopes may be making a comeback
Well, why not just get the Maine Eastern train and run it up there?Because you first need to find someone willing to sponsor the service and supply the startup funding. The carriers will expect to get paid, and neither the Pan Am organization nor the StL&A is likely to do it on their own, especially since the latter has come under new (G&W) ownership since the days of the Sunday River ski train. If you know any ski resorts with money to spend next season, that's who to talk to.
trainhq wrote:Well, why not just get the Maine Eastern train and run it up there? I mean, the cars areInteresting to think of the transfer arrangement once again, as originally envisioned. At current levels of service from POR it could actually be viable. I think we've all agreed more than once that a "one seat ride" is in fact pretty important.
just sitting there during the winter, aren't they? My bet is, it wouldn't take that much
ridership to make it work out if they ran it out of Portland. They could run it up Friday
night, and down Sunday afternoon in time for the 6:50 south.
TomNelligan wrote:The Maine Ski Resorts appear to have had a very good year. Not out of the question to consider Sunday River as a sponsor once again. I have no idea whether or not Boyne has any history with rail operations to their resorts.Well, why not just get the Maine Eastern train and run it up there?Because you first need to find someone willing to sponsor the service and supply the startup funding. The carriers will expect to get paid, and neither the Pan Am organization nor the StL&A is likely to do it on their own, especially since the latter has come under new (G&W) ownership since the days of the Sunday River ski train. If you know any ski resorts with money to spend next season, that's who to talk to.
gokeefe wrote: I would propose non-stop operation from Boston North Station and consider adding baggage cars to the train.I would propose non-stop from Anderson RTC to Bethel ME....Thinking you might get more skiers this way...and they'll (likely) have a secure place to park.
gokeefe wrote:In light of the recent very successful Amtrak excursion on the Northeast Corridor, the continuing track improvements on the Wildcat Branch in MA, the expected new flexibility in the single level coach fleet pool, Section 216 of the PRIIA which encourages Amtrak to run more special trains, and quite simply the onset of winter, I thought it would be a good idea to bring up the Ski Train (aka Snow Train) again.I wonder if NNERPA could do the same as the Cape Cod people did with the CAPE FLYER: piggyback on a Downeaster run, using the CAPE FLYER equipment.
First and foremost I think the excursion operation in PA was a major game changer. Amtrak made a lot of money on those trains and their reservations and capacity management systems functioned flawlessly. Given the opportunity to do much the same thing again I would think it would be nice if NNEPRA at least considered operation of a "test train" to Bethel. I would propose non-stop operation from Boston North Station and consider adding baggage cars to the train.
p42thedowneaster wrote:I was wondering about that when I wrote the message. I think there might be a need for a two-stop instead of a non-stop train in order to allow people to board at Woburn. The only problem here is that really seems to open a can of worms. If Woburn then why not Haverhill? I could see making only three stops in MA but the lost time from these stops could be quite significant. This is especially true if we are talking about running the Wildcat Branch once speeds are upgraded and the train is actually able to get some good running times over the MBTA.gokeefe wrote: I would propose non-stop operation from Boston North Station and consider adding baggage cars to the train.I would propose non-stop from Anderson RTC to Bethel ME....Thinking you might get more skiers this way...and they'll (likely) have a secure place to park.
Rockingham Racer wrote:I wonder if NNERPA could do the same as the Cape Cod people did with the CAPE FLYER: piggyback on a Downeaster run, using the CAPE FLYER equipment.I was under the impression that the Cape Flyer was run with standard MBTA equipment. Perhaps not? Sure looks like it on their website.
That would earn some revenue for the CAPE FLYER folks who otherwise would just have the equipment sit idle in their off-season.
Rockingham Racer wrote:If Amtrak is able to scrounge up enough equipment to run a rather lengthy excursion train like the one recently, I'm fairly confident that they could find 3-4 cars for this service.I agree. 3-4 cars probably wouldn't be a problem at all. I'm very confident as well that lift tickets could be included as part of the sale somehow. Part of the reason why I proposed school vacation week was that the skiiing is always good in February. It doesn't matter if it has snowed or not. As long as its cold (and it always is that time of year on the mountains) the resorts can make all the snow that they need.
Ski package deals would be a plus, too.
A concern would be, though, that if the ski season is lousy, what would the ridership be like? There's not much to do at Sandy River if the skiing isn't happening.
p42thedowneaster wrote:Part of the answer to this may be to run more than one test train.gokeefe wrote: I would propose non-stop operation from Boston North Station and consider adding baggage cars to the train.I would propose non-stop from Anderson RTC to Bethel ME....Thinking you might get more skiers this way...and they'll (likely) have a secure place to park.
