[redacted]

I hope that whom ever ends up with this railroad has no previous tourist railroad experience. On a level of proffesionalism both in operating and maintenance, ther is not another railroad like them in them country. That railroad can only be compared to the likes of BNSF.
Were an operation like the white pass, or god forbid the D&S, to end up buying the railroad it would end up in a down hill spiral.

Great - Sobczynski is there one lousy day and they have decided to sell it.

Jason - what did you do to these people?

Seriously - drop us a line and let us know how life on the Canyon is treating you.

dave

What can I say.....I just have that kind of effect on people. Life at the Canyon is spectacular thus far. I knew this to be the most professionally run tourist road in the country, but I had no idea just how far ahead it is. To work for this railroad is like workig for BNSF!

Well, if the rules test was any indication .... it was probably the hardest class I've ever had, and there have been a number of them.

Surprising coming from you Mr. Luke, as you were the only in our class to get a PERFECT SCORE! Congradulations to you.

According to the letter we all received a few days ago, it looks as if Xanterra is the successful bidder for the Grand Canyon Railway. Xanterra is a large corporation and has the concessions up at the Canyon. This should make it easy, as the bidder would have to pass the National Park Service scrutiny before it could purchase and operate the railroad. As they are already in place at the Park, it should be a "shoe-in."

Skip
Grand Canyon Railway Switchman.

Grand Canyon railway finds buyer
Company that manages parks concessions agrees to buy attraction

Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 22, 2006 12:00 AM

The owners of Grand Canyon Railway have agreed in principle to sell the state's top rail attraction to the nation's largest national parks concessionaire.

Xanterra Parks & Resorts, which is based in Denver, submitted a letter of intent to buy the railway on Thursday for an undisclosed price, said David Chambers, railway president.

Chambers said a final deal is expected to be struck by the end of October, with anticipated National Park Service approval by early next year.
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The 65-mile rail line begins in downtown Williams and ends at a historic depot on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Nearly 225,000 people rode the rail last year and 2005 revenues were $38 million, railway officials said.

Owners Max and Thelma Biegert of Paradise Valley had placed the railway on the market in March and two other large companies had been in the mix until early this week, Chambers said.

"There's a feeling that Xanterra will be in a position to grow the business in the direction that Max and Thelma want," Chambers said. He added that another major selling point is that Xanterra intends to retain the railway's 480 employees.

(Will post more in Flimsies...........)

Dear Bob,

I tried to email you the GCR press release on their site. Here it is.

September 21, 2006 - Grand Canyon Railway accepts ‘letter of intent to purchase’ from Xanterra Parks & Resorts
WILLIAMS, ARIZ.—Grand Canyon Railway has accepted a “letter of intent” to purchase the Railway’s capital stock submitted by Xanterra Parks & Resorts. The Railway selected Xanterra after an extensive sales process designed to uncover the buyer best-suited for continuing the Railway’s remarkable legacy. The purchase includes Grand Canyon Railway’s historic train to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel and several real estate parcels in Williams, AZ.

After my time at GCR I am not surprized at the sale I just wondered who was going to stand up for it.

Robby

What is wrong with the D&S or the White Pass? Why would the railroad start a down hill spiral if one of them took over operations? D&S and WP&Y are class operations and I don't see why the operation would fall apart in their hands.

We all need to get better and more professional or we will be marginalized out.

I am gratified that the prospective buyers know they know nothing about railroading, and are therefore keeping the knowlegeable employees on board. My guess is they know an awful lot about operating and marketing tourist destinations, so if the result is a fusion of strengths rather than a series of industrial-cultural misunderstandings, the line should be in good hands.

No lack of examples of what can happen when a railroad is managed by people who don't know what they don't know about railroading and believe they do, or accept bad advice from other uninformed individuals on the grounds that it matches their misconceptions.

I wouldn't characterize either D&S or WPY as mismanaged - while the decisions made by any enterprise can have unforseen repercussions and can be picked apart by the peanut gallery, by and large these businesses are grounded in the kind of rational capitalistic market driven orientation that provide for earned resources more than capable of maintaining an excellent railroad providing a quality salable product to their customers. If rational business considerations proved otherwise, they would not be in business.

dave

I second the query.

Given the choice between Xanterra acquiring the railroad and, oh, I dunno, Six Flags, Disney, or some subsidiary of AOLTimeWarnerBeatriceSaccoVanzettiPierceFennerEtc. buying into it, I'm sure I'll take the former. Also certainly better than certain "Bubba's Shore Line" steam operators as well.

I'm just waiting for certain folks of a political bent to challenge the sale/purchase as "corporations getting bigger and commercializing the Grand Canyon further", but come on, that battle was "lost" decades ago. Considering all the possibilities out there, it will be good to see a "local" concern keenly in tune with the local market to be administrating the operation.

The hazard of a "non-railroad" operator, of course, is the ever-present possibility of bean-counters casting a multitude of decisions that result, in the end, in staging "train robberies" with the new rolling stock--Chinese 2-10-2's hauling ex-C&NW bi-levels. Methinks, however, that Xanterra will be astute enough to hire real railroads operations managers instead.

I think the following paragraph from the [Flagstaff] Arizona Daily Sun's article on the letter of intent should nip in the bud all possible discussion of "no railroad experience" and "not a railroad company":



Any questions? <:-)

Mr. Mitchell -

Just for the record:

In the short time we had at the south rim in the Grand Canyon between GCRY trains, we were able to see endangered California Condors flying free, a bobcat resting in a Ponderosa Pine just below the canyon rim and mule deer at the base of said tree expressing their displeasure that the bobcat chose that particular tree to occupy. Not too bad for a "commercialized" site.

As for "train robberies" staged by a non-railroad operator, the CGRY did this on the way back from the Canyon. A non-obtrusive performance, the passengers all seemed to enjoy it very much.

I too am glad that Xanterra is apparently the successful bidder for the railroad. Especially since the employees I talked to were worried about a successful bid from Disney, or the like.

Les