In Colorado, from the Aspen Branch list:

Hello, all;

First, a big round of applause for the Aspen Branch Group members who
signed our petition to the RFTA Board.

As you will recall, at the March Board meeting, RFTA staff reported
that one response to the RFP had been received. The identity of the
respondent was not revealed until the final deadline has passed.
Informal feedback indicates that the Fremont Dinner Train folks will
not be responding, citing the "the unreasonable demands which the RFP
made, in particularly excessively high insurance requirements and
revenue sharing beyond track rental."

If at all possible, please attend the April 14th RFTA Board meeting,
when RFP response(s) will be revealed. I will alert you as to the
location, as history has shown that the meeting sometimes gets moved
to El Jebel rather than the Carbondale Town Hall.

Late in February our NRHS chapter received a lease from RFTA allowing
us to store our G. E. locomotive on the (disconnected) rail siding
next to the old Orrison buildings in the Glenwood Springs wye area.
Subsequently, we have been cautioned that the lease does not allow
the operation of the loco, just storage. RFTA staff cites concerns
about the FRA becoming involved, to which we replied that, according
to Fritz Kahn, Washington DC attorney (former general counsel to the
Interstate Commerce Commission) the FRA has no interest in rails that
are not connected to the national railway network. Further, we have a
$1M liability insurance policy on any operation our chapter
undertakes. To date, no response has been received.

Stay tuned!
. . . Jan

Also from the group's Yahoo list:

As you know, the trail folks are very well-funded, especially the New
Century Transportation Foundation http://www.newcenturytrans.org/
Our NRHS Chapter provided $50 "seed money" for a direct-mail
campaign*, but other costs (printer cartridges, paper, copying,
website creation) have been born by those of us who did the work.

Over the next month we would like to run some display ads in the
Glenwood Post Independent (and, possibly the Aspen Times); as a
non-profit we qualify for their lowest rate, averaging $100 per
insertion for a spot color ad (one color in addition to black and
white.)

If you would like to help with this effort, please contact me;
through our Museum gift shop we can accept Visa, MasterCard, checks,
money orders or good, old-fashioned cash.

Thanks,
. . . .Jan
Western Colo. Chapter, NRHS

*to community leaders who signed our petition and 60+ folks who have
ridden speeder trips on the Aspen Branch