We where informed today that the West Coast Wilderness Railway, Tasmainia. will close at the end of April. Fedral are ending there lease. It is one of the great railways of the world and worth saving.

Just picking up on the numbers the article says they hauled between 30-45 thousand people per year with 48 employees. This seems to be a bit heavy on the labour if those numbers are correct. Of course I understand that news outlets sometimes screw up the facts and also there is sometimes more to the story that does not make it into the news.

Just for idle comparison, does anyone have the visitation and employee numbers for Cass handy?

I didn't have the opportunity to get to Tasmania when down under a few years ago, wish I had........by all reports, this was a fine railway well worth seeing.

Cass is an economic development industry that runs a railraoad; I wonder if West Coast was also that, or if it was a railroad in the entertainment industry? If so, such a comparison would be of little value.

dave

It will certainly be a shame if this railway closes after all the effort that went into rebuilding it and Nigel's great successes there with his modifications to their locomotives.

I'm guessing labor costs are less there? I also expect that number includes everyone from shop, train crew to gift shop, concessions, coach cleaners and grounds care and those numbers can add up fast.

I work at a small local you pick berry farm/ kiddie amusement park on on occasion, and the number of timecards I see in the employee room was surprising to me, far more than I might have originally guessed. It takes a lot of people to keep even a modest operation going.

This is a shame ... I would think this railroad might be a worthy candidate for World Heritage site status.

Sincerely,
Glenn Christensen

The trains are small. What is their maximum capacity? The pictures show a little engine, little coaches, but they require the same labor as a big train.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The Puffing Billy Railway in the state of Victoria gets huge amounts of tax dollars to maintain infrastructure. That Icon of railway preservation would be but a shadow of it's current operation without those dollars.

TH

Seems as if they're looking towards Georgetown Loop / CATS business model in the future. Cool......I do hope a deeply pocketed operator and an affordable plan for repairing the damaged track structure will develop.

dave

The operator's website is not user friendly. The most visible links promote package tours with cruise or hotel.

If you find the section with train only tickets, all the dates say "call". No ticket information is available online. You have to call them by phone for information. Very inconvenient, since I suppose most visitors are flying in from elsewhere.

The latest news is that funding can be made available for the railway from the government and state.

This is good and now the but. There is still much happening to which we have no details and don't particularly want to know about with respect to finding a new operator for the railway. Beyond anything it's now obvious that the issues involved go beyond the railway and the local area so many parties are involved.
What ever the railway is still expected to stop operating at the end of April till these issues are solved both for operating and accreditation.

Actually, if local influence is being exerted to keep the line open, I'd say that is very good news indeed. Here's hoping they find a worthy operator to continue to build on their success.

dave

WCWR has a particular extra problem in that it runs through very mountainous country and is prone to land slips and fallen trees. Unforunately, the government won't allow them to clear trees along the line for safety reasons due to "conservation" issues.
I was in Tasmania this time last year and missed out on travelling on the train because a few days earlier, a tree fell between two cars (thankfully whilst shunting at Dubbill Barrill and without any passengers on board).
It took 3 days to clear the tree, under close supervision from government bureaucrats, I believe.
Workers at the Queenstown depot told me this was a constant problem which probably wouldn't be sensibly resolved until someone was killed.
The thing is, I suspect track maintenance costs would be considerably higher than probably any other tourist railway in the country, which obviously presents it's own set of problems.
What I think will save the operation is that it's one of two iconic tourist attractions in western Tasmania and runs in conjunction with the other ( Strahan and Macquarie Harbour).
Tasmania is economically depressed and tourism is probably the state's greatest economic asset. It's a fantastic state to visit, but if its major tourist attractions fail, the situation will get far worse.
Cheers, Bob