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A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45333		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Fri Mar 12, 2021 1:37 am ]
Post subject:  A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
https://azaleasprinter.com/

https://www.walb.com/2021/03/10/all-abo ... -south-ga/

On the former Georgia & Florida Railroad.

I have questions. You can probably guess what they are.
Author:  randyminter [ Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
I guess my question is how long until the local clientele has been there and done that. Nashville, GA is not a tourist hot spot nor do I ever see this doing what the Blue Ridge Scenic did for Blue Ridge, GA. The piney woods of south Georgia are not exactly awe inspiring. The SAM Shortline in Cordele same thing but at least it’s close to the Florida bound interstate.
Author:  Chris Webster [ Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
randyminter wrote:
The SAM Shortline in Cordele same thing but at least it’s close to the Florida bound interstate.

Valdosta is on the very same Florida bound Interstate highway (I-75) as Cordele.... and Nashville, GA is just 13-miles from the I-75 exit in Laconte.

Nashville, GA is the county seat of Berrien County. There were 885,842 people (in 2019) living within a 75-mile radius of Berrien County according to the Big Radius Tool. That is 3.5 times more than the 237,894 people who live within 75 miles of Durango, Colorado and Durango is 157 miles from the nearest Interstate highway.

Population within a 100-mile radius of Berrien County is 1,907,949....just 10% less than the population (2,171,085 people) within a 100-mile radius of Rusk, Texas.
Author:  Bobharbison [ Fri Mar 12, 2021 11:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
"Sprinter" - Somebody who only runs for a short period of time.

#irony

Ride it while you can would be my guess.
Author:  Crescent-Zephyr [ Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
Looks like a nice ride... I-75 between Macon and Valdosta is a very busy road - filled with hotels and restaurants. There’s a huge fairgrounds / convention center up the road in Perry GA.

Right by Nashville in Tiffins, GA there is the wonderful “Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village” - they operate a 36” gauge Vulcan steam train on the weekends. Wonderful village with the working farm, old General store and a historic railroad depot from Georgia as well.

A railfan could take in SAM shortline, the Tifton Steam Train, and this new Sprinter Train ride!
Author:  Randy Gustafson [ Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
When you look at the typical bugaboo of startups, it usually revolves around conflicts with owners, demands for liability insurance, track conditions and who pays for maintenance, and on public ownership, compliance with all manner of competitive bidding and limits on contract terms, lease payments, etc.

All those issues add to operating cost and it's not lineal to ridership. If you have a freight operator that wants to see if they can make a buck in excursions, and want to take the risk, the economics change. What usually happens in these situations over time isn't a lack of ridership, it's that they either loose the freight underpinnings to keep them basically viable or find new freight opportunity that's far more lucrative than an excursion and focus on that.

It's just a totally different economic paradigm.

And, depending on the political situation, having an excursion program to help economic development can be a real positive for political and grant funding support, even on a break-even basis. It's become a lot more unusual since the typical holding company picks up shortlines like monopoly properties, but it still exists.
Author:  Bobharbison [ Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:
Looks like a nice ride... I-75 between Macon and Valdosta is a very busy road - filled with hotels and restaurants. There’s a huge fairgrounds / convention center up the road in Perry GA.


Is that really a good thing though? Convention centers and fairgrounds keep you occupied on their own. I do a Ren Faire in Canby, OR and there’s a nice little depot museum very close to the fairgrounds, I drove right past it every day. But we opened before them and close after. Took me 3 years to finally get there early on a Friday and find them open. I’m as interested as it gets and even I didn’t find time to go there. What’s that say about the average visitor’s chance of going?
Author:  Crescent-Zephyr [ Sat Mar 13, 2021 12:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A new Georgia excursion operation: The Azalea Sprinter
Oh sorry, I was just saying there’s a lot happening on that stretch of I-75. Wild Adventures theme park is in Valdosta as well, they are owned by Herschend Entertainment.

Just saying it seems like a good location for a train ride to me. I wish them luck and will try to get down there for the unique rail miles!
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