Today, it was announced that the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society will not run the famed New River Trains this year, after 52 years of operation. The cause? Rising insurance costs from Amtrak.
Full article here.
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And the current president of Amtrak strikes again!!!!!! Political pressure forced him to operate the New River Train in 2018. He is now getting even.
Yep, the era of mainline excursions is now over thanks to Anderson. This year will be the first year with zero excursions on any class 1 railroad, steam or diesel. The UP 844 public excursions from Denver to Cheyenne are done, too because the Denver Post can no longer afford it. You might want to ride some regular Amtrak long distance trains this year because even those are in jeopardy of being cut in favor of shorter routes between cities. Pretty soon the only practical way to travel across the country will be by bus, car, or plane. A similar tactic was used by freight railroads in the past to discourage or prevent excursion operators from running on their tracks, jack the insurance rates so high that the excursion operators can’t afford it and they won’t be able to operate any mainline excursions. Guess Amtrak now no longer wants to bother with extra trains and special excursions.
Robert K posted:Yep, the era of mainline excursions is now over thanks to Anderson. This year will be the first year with zero excursions on any class 1 railroad, steam or diesel. The UP 844 public excursions from Denver to Cheyenne are done, too because the Denver Post can no longer afford it. You might want to ride some regular Amtrak long distance trains this year because even those are in jeopardy of being cut in favor of shorter routes between cities. Pretty soon the only practical way to travel across the country will be by bus, car, or plane. A similar tactic was used by freight railroads in the past to discourage or prevent excursion operators from running on their tracks, jack the insurance rates so high that the excursion operators can’t afford it and they won’t be able to operate any mainline excursions. Guess Amtrak now no longer wants to bother with extra trains and special excursions.
And I thought things looked bleak when NS shut down its steam program in 1994! 
