Hot Water posted:superwarp1 posted:Rusty Traque posted:superwarp1 posted:Not all is lost, things ebb and flow. In a few years the guy running Amtrak now will be out and there will be 180 deg turn around in policy.
There's no guarantee of that...
Rusty
True, NS allowed steam excursions, then they didn't, then they did, and now they don't again. Even CSX policy will change some day. It may have to be when they get swallowed up by another railroad but it will change.
It really isn't a matter of "allowing" steam excursions, or ANY excursions for that matter, but the liability insurance coverage for such excursions. Now that Amtrak no longer allows "special" trains, except of course for the New River Specials after massive political pressure was applied to current Amtrak management, class 1 railroads such as BNSF, NS, and even UP would still entertain discussions about excursions, so long as the excursion operator is able to provide AT LEAST five hundred million dollars of liability insurance coverage. Since such a huge insurance policy carries a VERY EXPENSIVE premium, THAT is the reason that there will no longer be excursions on any of the U.S. class 1 railroads.
Just curious, is that 500 million dollar liability from what has been written or from personal experience, or is it based on being involved with such excursions? I have heard a lot of claims over the years based in what someone thinks the actual cost is, usually based in of course it must be lawyers and lawsuits. I did a bit of research and Amtrak said it was stopping these because they didn't return much in revenue and ended up losing focus and causing delays to their main revenue service. When I looked at why CSX banned steam excursions, every citing was that it was costly to the railroad to allow that, that they had to schedule freight service around it, etc.
If it was the cost of liability insurance the people who operate the excursions would have cancelled them, but it seems like the railroads themselves see it as not economically feasible..which is why I asked. None of them mention the railroads wanting the excursions to carry huge liability insurance, and the excursion operators themselves have simply said that they were told the railroad won't allow excursions, if it was the cost of insurance I would expect them to say that.
