BLUEFIELD —
Following three years of successful trips from Roanoke to Bluefield, the popular Amtrak train excursion will not be returning to Nature’s Air-Conditioned City this year.
Dorr Tucker, a spokesperson with the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Society, said train excursion ticket sales have slacked off in the past year. Tucker said Bluefield has been a popular train excursion destination for three years, but officials felt passengers were looking for more variety.
“We are doing something different this year,” Tucker said. “The trip to Bluefield is still our best trip, but we have run it three years in a row. We felt like the sales slacked off a little bit. We have two other good locations to go to. We love Bluefield because it is a great look at the Pocahontas coalfields and coal mining. We think the sales have slacked off since people have already been there several times and want a little variety.”
However, Tucker said the train excursion does intend to return to Bluefield in the future.
“At some point we will return to Bluefield,” he said. “Historically, it is our best trip. It is not that the Bluefield trip did not draw people but more that we are having a hard time getting enough people to go on any of these trips. We aren’t trying to favorite one community over the other but presenting a balanced approach and selling the trips we think will do the best each year. The fact that we came to Bluefield three years in a row shows it is our best trip, but we need to diversify a little bit.”
The train excursion will be diversifying by traveling to Abingdon, Va., and Shenandoah, Va., from Roanoke this year, Tucker said.
“One trip is Abingdon, which is a good trip though it isn’t as scenic as the New River Valley,” Tucker said. “However, Abingdon itself represents a different area of history than Bluefield. Abingdon was a big success last year. We are also going to a little town called Shenandoah that is just a railroad place where we change crews. It looks like the Shenandoah trip is doing the best out of all of the trips. We have looked at areas like Danville. We just go wherever we think there is the best market.”
Tucker said the Roanoke train excursion has encountered some competition from larger train excursions.
“In Roanoke, we do have a limited market for these trains,” he said. “Norfolk Southern has started running some steam locomotive trips from Roanoke to Bristol and then out of Williamson as well. We are trying to get younger people to participate. We have several new people who are younger helping us out. The New River Train is run on four separate days before we run our train trip, and we run a shorter train. They are nationally known and handle a lot more passengers than we do because over 40 years they have worked up operating agreements with a number of bus companies out in the Midwest. Those folks out there are coming from flat country so they love our mountains. They want to come our way and see what we are accustomed to. We cooperate with them along with two other local groups.”
Additionally, Tucker said the organization must recoup the cost of bringing in passenger cars to the area.
“It costs a lot of money to bring the train cars in,” he said. “We bring some in from Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. It costs a lot to bring them in and take them back. We have to run empty train cars to Roanoke from Washington and then run them back, which we have to pay for as well. It costs more than $100,000 to bring this train into Roanoke.”ဵ
Local News
September 7, 2012
Officials: Amtrak train excursion canceled
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