Steam & Excursion > Christmas trains on a massive scale

I think it is accurate to say a number of excursion railroads owe their survival the past 15 years to the Christmas train.  Some excursion lines carry half of their passengers during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Without these trains I think a number of tourist railroads would have gone out of business.  While in the distant past a number of lines hosted a limited number of holiday light and tree cutting trains, the concept honed in when the Polar Express movie came out in 2004.  Tourist railroads for the most part follow the same recipe.  Passengers board the train for a one hour voyage to the North Pole. Along the way they get a cookie and a cup of hot chocolate.  The trainly slowly passes a lighted display that is known as the "North Pole". Over the hour excursion Santa walks through the coaches, while seasonly hired teenagers sing (or yell) Christmas carols.   The Yelp reviews for the various Christmas trains are entertaining to read.

While the majority of tourist railroads host their own flavor of North Pole trains during the season, other railroads license the Polar Express experience.  When executed properly the Polar Express show comes off entertaining, though some licensees don't bother to follow the script.  This year it appears that American Heritage Railways, the licensing agent for the Polar Express is going all out with the brand by hosting 250 trains in Southern California.  They partnered with Orange Empire Railway Museum and the Fillmore and Western Railway to host the event. They have what appears to be a centralized call center in Virginia and Las Vegas.  It seems the thinking is if a little bit of Christmas train makes some money, then a lot of Christmas train must make a ton of money.

The price for these trips does not come cheap.  There is the base price of the ticket which runs $65-$85 a ticket.  Then they add on an $4.50 per ticket charge and another $5 for sales tax. I don't understand why a train ride has sales tax in California as I have never come across this.  There is some discount for weekday and early season trains.  A family of four is looking at over $300 for a one hour train experience!  I get it is the "Polar Express" experience, but many other railroads do a pretty nice job with their own North Pole trains for 1/3 the cost.  At those sky-high prices the experience better be top notch.  Who is going to bake those 75,000 cookies?

Information web site:  https://socalthepolarexpressride.com

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

OK, I'll answer from my own experiences.  One of my favorite railroads that does a Christmas Train is the "Steam Into History,"- Northern Central Railroad out of New Freedom, Pennsylvania.  Two years ago I took my three grandchildren up there and we rode the train which had Santa Claus plus a fellow playing guitar and singing Christmas Songs.  There was no increase in their fares and they gave each child a small gift of Christmas candies.  The train was almost full with their three homemade passenger cars.  My three grandchildren thoroughly enjoyed the ride and being able to converse with Santa as he actually spent some time with each of the children.  This is an outstanding operation as you probably have read about with many folks here on TrainOrders covering this railroad and the steam locomotive.  If my memory serves me right, there was no increase in their fares.
Here in Baltimore, our Baltimore Streetcar Museum holds an event called "Santa's Streetcar."  The fares are $10.00 for adults and $8.00 for children under 12.  This is a fund raiser for the museum, thus they do not accept any passes or discount coupons during this event.  The dates are December 7th and 8th, and the 14th and 15th, Noon to 5 P.M.  During this event obviously Santa Claus rides the streetcars, there are additional story tellers who ride and there are holiday refreshments and music.
Hopefully many folks who live in the area of Baltimore will visit both of these attractions to render their support.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

I think you're spot on Todd about how important these trains are to the fiscal survival of many tourist roads. The NH&I RR where I work as a part time engineer changed the name from Polar Express to North Pole Express to escape the huge royalty charged to use the Movie's title. We've found the North Pole Express works just as well. 

  I'm confident that these Santa season trains have introduced thousands of youngsters to the magic of train travel and that's a great thing.

   Ross Rowland 

Also,  Thomas the Tank Engine days.

Being from the midwest, my impression is that everything in California is more expensive. From gasoline, to food, home prices and everything else. Why wouldn't Christmas train tickets also be more expensive?

Is my perception valid?

Posted from Android

This is capitalism in America.  Whatever the market will bear.  The prices aren't that far out of line with other Polar Express experiences, such as the one I dispatch out of Utica, NY: https://www.adirondackrr.com/utica/polar-express/ as well as dozens of others.  For Southern California, I'm only surprised that its not MORE expensive there, given how much I've paid for everything from gas to a hot dog and a coke on recent visits.  The Polar Express in Utica traditionally sells out even in an economically depressed area with nearly a months worth of departures.

I've seen numbers drop off at places that have abandoned the brand.  I hear New Hope's annual ridership is down, though I don't know if this applies to their off-brand holiday trains.  Other organizations do very well with off-brand trains.  There are any number of factors that affect the equation really, and one size (and price) certainly does not fit all.

Bottom Line: The Polar Express brand works for many, many organizations. Period. Full stop.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/19 11:45 by Bridge60.

utwazoo Wrote:
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> Also,  Thomas the Tank Engine days.

I'll disagree here. If you compare the resources to put no a Santa train verses the resources to put on DOTW it's a no brainer. DOTW can break your railroad with licensing, fees, and forced merchandise sales. Santa is pretty cheap though. 

To set the record straight Santa train revenues ( monies in the bank) have set new records every year for the past decade at the NH&I.  It's thanks to many factors including agressive/effective marketing, heads up operations and of course good word of mouth. The North Pole title works just as well as Polar Express and is free of the horrendous royalty they get for it. NH&I has proved that for over a decade. 

   Why anyone continues to use the Polar Express extremely expensive and uneeded package is a real mystery.

   At the end of the day what counts is NET revenues after all the bills are paid.

   Ross Rowland 

Nevada Northern dropped the Polar Express this year and is going with a generic Christmas train this year.  My thought is the reason ridership might drop is the replacement may not be well executed and people do not return the following year after the change.   A generic replacement can work fine, but it needs to be well thought out and include more than off key teenagers yelling Christmas Carols through the train.



 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

I totally agree with you Todd. What I can't figure out is the train ride in Perris. The total track is short compared to Filmore. Either a VERY slow train, or a couple of trips back and forth. There better be the best hot cocoa in the world for $85.00 per person. 

Thomas does well I think for everyone involved. The kids really like it. 

To the poster about about living in CA, yes it is more expensive thank the rest of the country, except New York, Illinois, and a dozen others.

If you really want a sticker shock, look at the cost of going to Disneyland for a day, not including food. 

P Wrote:
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> Being from the midwest, my impression is that
> everything in California is more expensive. From
> gasoline, to food, home prices and everything
> else. Why wouldn't Christmas train tickets also
> be more expensive?
>
> Is my perception valid?
>
> Posted from Android

My 2nd job is Pizza Hut here in So Cal.
First of is the cost of the pizza.

Then Delivery charge is now almost $5
Plus Sales Tax

Plus now an "SVC" fee added charge of about $3 "For the cost of doing business in California"
I think the same fee is also added to carry out too.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Interesting to see if they can pull this off. It’s going to be a hell of a drain on the resources of both railroads in both people and hardware. Those prices are going to come with serious expectations from the public and I imagine folks will be paid to handle every aspect of the operation which is awkward when using volunteers as your base labor in the past.  I wish them well.

webmaster Wrote:
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> Nevada Northern dropped the Polar Express this
> year and is going with a generic Christmas train
> this year.

Given the 'out-of-the-way' location of the Nevada Northern I am guessing that their revenue sales from past Polar Express events are out paced by the licensing agreement costs from American Heritage's "Rail Events" subsidiary and the costs to host a Polar Express train event. I just don't see enough of a draw in the local populace from the White Pine County area to support a PE event in Ely, NV as compared to say PE events in Southern California where you 'have the numbers' to draw from. The California State Railroad Museum Foundation turned a nice healthy $750K profit in 2018 for hosting PE events at both the Sacramento based museum location (aboard the CSRM's "Sacramento Southern") and the Jamestown Railtown 1897 State Historic Park location (aboard the CSRM's historic "Sierra Railway"). Both of these State of California locations have pofited from heavy investment in the Polar Express brand. The benefit is that hopefully these same patrons will return during non-PE events as well as future PE events. Both locations are well attended.

While not a Polar Express event, the Niles Canyon Ry's 'Train of Lights' holiday themed train is typically sold out, drawing from a huge population base in the San Francisco Bay Area. They know their market base and have a choice location to promote their TOL events as well as their other many well attended events. Other railroads have also been able to do similar holiday themed trains.

SV

The Perris ticket prices are $45-$65 for adults and depends upon which schedule is taken. (Children 2-11 are $5 less.) The $4.50 fee is the processing fee paid to the processor (etix.com) You also have to add 7.75% sales tax.