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Full-length dome car added to Milwaukee Road 261 steam trip
If GN only ran a train there once every year, or two or five, they probably could have gotten that kind of money.
Conversely, if Fo261 was running that trip every day, or every weekend, or even once a month, they couldn’t get that money for it.
$400 a seat! If GN could have got that kind of money, the Empire Builder would still be running.
I know it is but, I try not to think post 1971.
Being in the business of running excursions I can say that while $400.00 seems high the cost to get extra cars is very high. I tried to add extra seating on my PM 1225 “Return to Rails” excursion last march. With the cost of adding an extra car and wanting to keep tickets reasonably priced it was decided to drop the observation car from the consist. The hard facts are that cost are increasing daily to run excursions. If railfans and the general public aren’t willing to pay the higher ticket prices we will be seeing fewer excursions. That being said, I just signed a contract with SRI for another PM 1225 excursion next March.
Great Northern’s Empire Builder provided stiff competition to the Milwaukee’s Olympian Hi (and NP’s North Coast Ltd)…calling the equipment “Great Domes” to beat the “Super.”
Those $399 seats are a minority of the total overall seats that were offered on this trip before it sold out. I believe coach seats were roughly half that or less.