Bring Back the Ski Trains?!

[thetrailboss]

I was listening to a show on NHPR today about Railroads in the state and could not resist calling in and asking about restoring the 'ski trains' as we have done here in Vermont. The show will be online tonight, but you can get to it through this link.

The restoration of rail service makes sense considering that 10e and Loon are planning large resorts and they are very close to the railroad tracks.

Your thoughts? Any of you old enough to have rode on the ski trains?

 

[skizilla]

Trains

This sounds like a great idea especially since nearby boston and woster have tons of rail access. As long as the mountains have a shuttle that is within 15 or so minutes of the slope.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

A ski train may be running to Gore as early as next season. Saratoga to North Creek.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Curious what "ski trains" are restored in Vermont?

If your talking about the Ethan Allen and the Vermonter, they are not exactly workable as ski trains. The Vermonter does not work as it takes 9 hours to go from NYC to Waterbury. Many stops along the route.

The Ethan Allen does work somewhat for Kmart as it gets from NYC to Rutland pretty quickly. The last stats I can remember from the VSAA less than 1% of Vermont skiers arrive by train.

I think the rebirth of ski trains would be awesome but I doubt it will ever happen.

 

[thetrailboss]

Curious what "ski trains" are restored in Vermont?

If your talking about the Ethan Allen and the Vermonter, they are not exactly workable as ski trains. The Vermonter does not work as it takes 9 hours to go from NYC to Waterbury. Many stops along the route.

The Ethan Allen does work somewhat for Kmart as it gets from NYC to Rutland pretty quickly. The last stats I can remember from the VSAA less than 1% of Vermont skiers arrive by train.

I think the rebirth of ski trains would be awesome but I doubt it will ever happen.

I was referring to the Amtrak services here in VT. IIRC the Ethan Allen is partnered with Kmart so as to bring people from Rutvegas to the slopes.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Curious what "ski trains" are restored in Vermont?

If your talking about the Ethan Allen and the Vermonter, they are not exactly workable as ski trains. The Vermonter does not work as it takes 9 hours to go from NYC to Waterbury. Many stops along the route.

The Ethan Allen does work somewhat for Kmart as it gets from NYC to Rutland pretty quickly. The last stats I can remember from the VSAA less than 1% of Vermont skiers arrive by train.

I think the rebirth of ski trains would be awesome but I doubt it will ever happen.

I was referring to the Amtrak services here in VT. IIRC the Ethan Allen is partnered with Kmart so as to bring people from Rutvegas to the slopes.

While working at the Bush in the late 90's we put together a Amtrak/ski/stay package and tried to convince Amtrak to try an evening run of the Vermonter without all the stops. As you can imagine we did not get very far. It actually begins in Washington DC so the only stop would have been NYC.

The Bush kept the package, still had it last year but very few takers.

 

[riverc0il]

while i love the romantic idea of bringing back ski trains, it is just not practical. consider for example, the T in metro area boston. the MBTA is losing it's shirt while it charges people 30 miles outside of boston $6 a ticket each way or $12 round trip. that is only for 30 miles on a well booked train in high demand. a round trip tank of gas from boston to the white mountains is in the range of $20-30 which would likely be less than the cost of gas. even for one person, the financial advantages of automobile are substantial. for two people it is double and for a family it is a no brainer. also consider the lack of convenience and it is a slam dunk. no one except folks flying into airports or folks without cars would use a ski train. factor in the extra time it takes trains and it's a slam dunk for using an automobile instead. also, it must be considered that resorts would need to pony up the money for taxi/bus service because after paying $30-40 for a train ride (guesstimating here), who would want to shell out money to get transported to the ski area then back to the hotel then back to the ski area etc. the lack of convenience adds insult to the injury of the cost. besides the opinion that most skiers would not desire the option, i doubt train companies could make much money off of this service. i love trains, but i will drive to ski areas any day.

 

[ga2ski]

Sunday River and Sugarloaf used th run the silver bullet, but it didn't last long, maybe two seasons. I have never been on one.

 

[ga2ski]

Sunday River and Sugarloaf used th run the silver bullet, but it didn't last long, maybe two seasons. I have never been on one.

 

[ga2ski]

Silver Bullet used to run to Sunday River and Sugarloaf, but it didn't last long, maybe two seasons. It was always a cluster when they has to load up all the poeple and get them down to bethel.

I have never been on one.

 

[skibum1321]

So where did the Silver Bullet used to run again?

 

[ga2ski]

So where did the Silver Bullet used to run again?

It ran into Bethel and not sure where at the loaf, my guess would be Farmington. Maybe I'm wrong and it only came to Sunday River.

 

[skibum1321]

So where did the Silver Bullet used to run again?

It ran into Bethel and not sure where at the loaf, my guess would be Farmington. Maybe I'm wrong and it only came to Sunday River.

I was just kidding. You had your last post 3 times. Failed attempt at a joke :-?

 

[mattchuck2]

a round trip tank of gas from boston to the white mountains is in the range of $20-30 which would likely be less than the cost of gas. even for one person, the financial advantages of automobile are substantial. for two people it is double and for a family it is a no brainer. also consider the lack of convenience and it is a slam dunk. no one except folks flying into airports or folks without cars would use a ski train.

Yeah, I'd think it'd be mostly people without cars. If I lived in NY or Boston, I'd probably ditch my car and all of the hassles that come with it (insurance, registration, etc.). In that situation, a ski train would be particularly cool.