We all know that the advent of jet planes was a death knell for train travel in the U.S. but pockets of sanity occasionally arose and brought back the nostalgic life of traveling by rail car. Trains are still popular in Canada, the Wine Train in Napa County still runs (though I suspect it loses money) and a few years ago, someone brought back luxury trains in Colorado, called the Grand Luxe Railways.
Traveling on 4-12 day journeys to the West, South and Mexico (in 2009), Grand Luxe brought back what was to some (like my grandfather) a way of life long gone. (I still remember my Grandpa coming in from Utah on a train and one of my very first trips was a train trip to LA on the Starlight Coast.) But now, kiss it goodbye, as Grand Luxe announced a few weeks ago that it was ceasing operations.
I don't imagine I have to guess why; if it isn't the extra time spent traveling (and time is money nowadays) it is the tremendous COST of traveling on the Grand Luxe. I looked into one of those National Park train trips in the Southwest recently and I was shocked at how expensive it was. Thinking seats might be $100-$150 for a 2-3 day trip, I was stunned when I saw they were $65 (off season) for just a seat in the lowest class for a 2 HOUR trip! First class was $130, a parlor car $170. That's $130 - $340 for a simple 4 1/2 hr round trip train ride!
I can only imagine the Grand Luxe was thousands for their trips and while I applaud the idea, not many families looking for an adventure want to spend $6,000 riding a train for days on end, no matter how much 'fun' it was. So I don't doubt they had financial trouble. It is a shame there is not enough of a market to make these endeavors worthwhile and I have no idea whether lower prices would attract more passengers. I sense that it would only mean they still lost money, only carried more traffic doing so, therefore I can't comment on the business model. But it is a life seemingly perfect for retired people who have time and hopefully money and apparently there weren't enough of them willing to give up Europe (again) just to ride the old steam engine into Wichita one last time.
As an alternative (and here's a travel tip for you), take Canadian Railways 16 hour journey from Vancouver B.C. to Jasper, AB. for about $400 round trip. You will see some absolutely stunning countryside and if you are smart, you'll rent a car in Jasper and head for the Canadian Rockies and then come back for the return trip to B.C. My advice is to get the SuperSaver fare (non-refundable and non-exchangeable) for only $184 Canadian!
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