A friend of mine who was planning a trip on Grand Luxe (former American Orient Express) got the following email yesterday:

GrandLuxe Rail Journeys will cease operations with the
return of the train to Tacoma on Thursday morning, August 28,2008. We are financially unable to continue operations.

Unfortunately, this means all future trips, including your trip, will not operate. We deeply regret the fact that we cannot operate your trip. We know this raises many questions including "will I get my money back". At this time we just do not have many answers to your questions. We will do our best to get back to you with more
information as it is available.

I am personally deeply sorry that we have failed to provide your trip.

He had a $500 per person deposit ($1000 total) down and has already called is credit card company to contest the charge.

One wonders about the health of Colorado Railcar and I guess I wonder where some of these cars might end up. Supposedly the cars have had almost $1 million each put into them I would assume they will be lucky to see 15% of that.

Their webpage makes no mention of this, and when you call the number, they are still taking reservations. Is there any truth to this?

It's dead as a doornail.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/ ... 63211.html

It's a no wonder, when the price of tickets are so high, It's a no wonder why they discontinue the services, theses type of rail trip only cater to the rich and not the middle class. and people that have the money , don't usually want to spend it on that type of entertainment.

Len.

Then explain to us why the First Class sections of steam and mainline excursions such as 261, Norfolk Southern, 4449, 844, etc. are almost always the first to sell out, in spite of high ticket prices. It's been that way for decades, back to NS/UP 8444 days.

On recent outings of trips like the Verde Canyon RR, Grand Canyon RR, etc. that I witnessed/rode, the first/luxury class sections were well-filled, probably better sell-out ratio than the coach class.

It's marketing, plain and simple. Operations like GrandLuxe and the Canadian land cruises aren't competing against Amtrak/VIA or the Grand Canyon RR; they're competing for passengers' time and dollars against luxury resorts, cruise ships, and the like.

The more likely source of the demise of Grand Luxe is the fact that they were likely carrying a ton of financing and they couldn't get short term bridge loans to reconfigure what must be immense debt service. While the operation may well have been able to cover short term operating costs, and perhaps long term operating expenses, it is likely that any dip in income (even the rich notice the economy), coupled with tightened credit, brought a swift end to the group.

Not to say that such a product won't be brought out in the future, but the owners of Grand Luxe are going to take some major losses, or will wait a while, secure new financing (the business model seemed to work) and try again down the road.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

If you follow the financial news, it's related to the sub-prime financial meltdown. Older couples taking out mortgages, they couldn't pay back, to take the "retirement" cruise/train/vacation they always dreamed of.
Three Hawaiian interisland cruise ships are down to 2, with about 50% occupancy ratings. Same is true of the cruise/vacation industry all over. Un-real borrowed money was supporting the "luxury" vacation for the last 5-7 years and now the spigot is turned off.
Even if the retirees get to keep their homes due to the mortgage bailout, free-flowing second and third mortgages have dried up.
Headline from yesterday's Honolulu paper is "Tourism Off 14.9%"

Define "High Ticket Prices"...

The least expensive fare on the AOE makes the most expensive fare on a steam excursion seem like lunch money in comparision. They started at $5K for the short trips and that was a few years back when I checked.

When I snapped up a dome car seat on the 844/4449 trip the moment it came up for sale, it was $400... That's not chump change to a guy like me, but I could stretch a bit and make it happen.

To take the wife on a trip on AOE was going to cost $10k minimum, probably more like $15k. "Gee honey, would you rather go for a train ride, or use the momeny to pay about 75% of the cost of that new car you need?" Guess which one she'd choose. Heck, for that matter, guess which one I'd choose! I simply don't have that kind of folding money.

There's plenty of folks out there who can afford to pony up $1k or so to go on a railfan trip. When you start talking $20k, the number shrinks significantly. That's a whole different economy...

Any one that wants to spend 5K to 20K for a train steam trip are nuts, I'm going on a steam trip this comming Saturday behind R&N 425 the tickets only cost me $79.00 and we are running at main line speed behind a historic steam locomotive. it was built by Baldwin in 1928.
I rode behind C&O 614 on the Eire Limited back in 1996 - 98 and the tickets cost less then a $100.00 , And that was main line speed. his top speed was around 80 mph.

Len.

So I guess Mr. Levin was nuts for restoring those Es. Heck, he could have bought some Gp38s to use instead. I guess UP is nuts for running the 844 and 3985. Guess I'm nuts for sending in a check to renew my one RR museum membership, even though I hardly go there.

If it weren't for some of the big donors, a lot less preservation would be accomplished. So I caution on your use of the term "nuts".

The problem is that some folks here are comparing apples and oranges. A couple hours on a lounge car on the R&M does NOT equal the AOE.

From what I can tell, the GrandLuxe excursions covered many days and many miles with luxury accommodations at stopovers. Have someone pull together the equivalent of the old Roanoke Chapter "Independence Limiteds" over many days and miles, with Pullmans and PVs and gourmet food, and get back to me with the prices. Or tell me the cost to jump on one of the AAPRRCO multi-day rare mileage trips. Hint: four figures, easily.

While private car trips are expensive, I still think (without really checking) that Grand Luxe was even more expensive and luxurious. Someone else commented that maybe Colorado Rail Car was trying to make a profit instead of just getting a free ride for the owner and breaking even.

Just found this post on Vimeo about the Grand Luxe. The text commentary below the video tells me probably the most important thing about the service.

http://www.vimeo.com/1082063



This land cruise was not without problems. Perhaps their operational model could have been modified and more of the basics improved. I would give it another couple years and someone else will revive this as the Great American Rail Journey. And maybe it will be steam powered! For some legs of the trip, anyway.
O. Anderson