GEORGETOWN – The owner of Red Ram Restaurant, Bruce Donato, gets a little depressed when he looks at empty seats and adds up his summer sales. He says the numbers have been down all summer long. "We were off $10,000 in May, off $22,000 in June and in July we were off about $7,000," said Donato. The drop, Donato says, is due to the Georgetown Loop Railroad, which draws big crowds to town and his restaurant. The railroad has been closed at least 40 times this year due to equipment problems. "Being that the train has been down a little this year, it has affected our revenue," said Donato. Former Loop Railroad owner Mark Greska says he used to have a better track record because he had several back up steam engines. "In 32 years we missed one day of operating trains. We had five steam locomotives," said Greska. In his last year running the loop they had 132,000 passengers, but this year Tom Hill with the Georgetown Loop says that number looks to be around 51,000. "At various times throughout the season, we have been down anywhere between a week or two or three days at a time," said Hill. One problem is that the only steam engine running at the Georgetown Loop is engine No. 12, and it's been hard keeping it running. However, Hill says the Colorado Historical Society, which now owns the railroad, plans on adding additional backup engines next year. "I think things will be much better next year than this year and it has been an unfortunate year," said Hill. Hill also points out that other business owners he has talked to say sales are actually up this summer despite the problems with engine No.12. In fact, he says sales tax revenue in Georgetown is above the five year average. "Overall, year-to-date, the sales tax revues are up almost 8 percent," said Hill. That's no consolation to Donato and all his empty chairs. "During the summer, this town, the main draw would be the steam train," said Donato. He is now hoping by next summer the railroad and his business will both be back on track.
Poor track record hurting tourism Georgetown feels pinch when Loop railroad stays in the station By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News September 27, 2007 GEORGETOWN - Ken and Nancy Copeman got a jolt Wednesday morning when they walked up to the ticket window for the historic scenic railroad here and saw the sign taped to the side of the depot: "This train SOLD OUT." The New York state residents, who traveled to Colorado to visit relatives in Bailey, had planned to hop aboard the steam-powered passenger train on this cloudless day during one of the peak viewing times for the aspen trees rooted on the mountainsides of this old mining outpost. But the tourist attraction had to turn away the couple, as it has thousands of other would-be customers this season - one that likely will go down as the worst ever for ridership. The impact has reverberated through this historic town, 37 miles west of Denver. The reason: the popular Georgetown Loop Railroad has been forced to shut down for repairs for weeks at a time in a season that lasts only four months each year. And it still doesn't have the capacity to carry the loads it once did before the Colorado Historical Society signed on a new rail operator three years ago. "We were out of operation for 42 days, and we also didn't pull as many cars," said Tom Hill, spokesman for Railstar, the company that operates the train for the historical society but unlike the previous operator has no trains of its own. "That really did hurt us." Some area restaurants have complained that the railroad's poor track record this season has hit them, too. That's because they depend so heavily on the tourist traffic the train attracts to the small town. George Cizek, owner of the New Prague Restaurant, and Bruce Donato, who has owned the Red Ram for the past 1 1/2 years, each reported experiencing big downturns in business this summer. While Donato's eatery filled up with lunchtime diners on this particular afternoon, he pulled out sales tax paperwork showing his revenues had fallen to $54,000 in June from $74,000 in June 2006. He blamed a delay of more than two weeks in the traditional Memorial Day weekend start to the Loop's season. "I bought this business based on a train operating in this town," Donato said. "I do as much business when the train is running as I do from November through March." Cizek said he typically served about 80 lunches at his nearby Czech restaurant, but he got less than half that patronage when the train wasn't running. Still, overall sales tax revenues for George-town are running head of last year's take. And some establishments say business has never been better. "The numbers this year have been unreal," said Jenette Bauer, who runs the Happy Cooker restaurant. "This is the busiest summer I've ever had. Even when the train had its shortcomings, we were still super busy." For its part, the Colorado Historical Society has high hopes that it can soon build up its own stock of railroad cars and engines to meet public demand for train rides. "This summer we had a delayed start, but this has been a very successful summer," said Ed Nichols, who recently took over as president of the historical society. "This is all part of a very positive growing opportunity." Nichols noted that his agency needs to purchase more engines and cars to restore the capacity the Loop railroad had under its former operator. While the state agency owns the historic railroad park, a family-run company had owned and operated the Georgetown Loop trains for more than 30 years. The two sides parted ways a few years ago after failing to renegotiate a contract between the agency and the Georgetown Railroad Loop Inc., the family- run outfit that still operates Colorado's Royal Gorge railroad. When it couldn't reach an agreement with the historical society, the company declined to compete against others when the agency put out a request for competitive bids. "Our family was involved in managing the Georgetown Loop, and out of 32 years we missed only one day of operating the train," Mark Greksa said. He has offered to lease the $5 million-worth of trains his family owns back to the historical society but only with the stipulation that his company operates them. "They've only offered to do that if we break the contract (with New York-based Railstar), and that's a state contract," said Nichols, noting that the company had the opportunity to submit a proposal for the contract and "didn't respond." For now, the historical society has been focused on trying to rebuild the railroad's stock so it can carry the more than 100,000 passengers a season that it did before the change in operators. "They've done a better job of holding the threads together than I thought they would," said Tom Wilson, who manages the Georgetown Mountain Inn. On the train platform Wednesday morning, some were blissfully unaware of the controversy over what annually ranks as one of the state's top tourist attractions. Twin 4-year-old boys from Littleton wore matching conductor hats as they stood ready to board the 11:55 a.m. train bound for the nearby town of Silver Plume. Fortunately, their grandparents went online the day before to buy tickets before they had sold out. "I think it's going to be pretty fun," said Weston Wall, who stood next to his brother Colton as they waited for the train to arrive at the railroad's Devil's Gate station. Rail challenges A late start, lack of capacity and six weeks of down time this summer hurt ridership on the Georgetown Loop Railroad, one of the state's biggest tourist attractions. Railstar operates the Loop but owns none of the train cars. The Colorado Historical Society hopes to add cars so it can meet rider demand. Under its previous operator, the Loop carried more than 100,000 passengers a year. 2007 51,000* 2006 72,600 2005 65,600 2004 132,000 Note: * Projected Ridership kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068
