Passenger Trains > United Rail Purchases Key Holidays

How do these enterprises go on and on without every making a penny?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/united-rail-inc-acquires-key-121722325.html

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

R.I.P. Fun & Snow trains.

This could actually be a saving grace. The Fun/Snow trains suffered major losses the last couple winters. To the point I was told Key had given up on running either indefinately due to the losses they sustained.

Being they are going to continue seeling tours under the "Key Holidays" brand as the article states. Why not keep the name sake of the Fun/Snow trains? They all ready have name recognition since the service is over 50 years old. The concern I have is the new owners will try and re-invent the wheel when it comes to Fun/Snow train operations which, when all goes well (weather permitting) infact runs like a fine tuned machine.

Just my two cents.

Fun/Snow train service has a problem getting equipment. Amtrak forced many car owners out of business. Add the stiff price increases and PV owners cannot afford to run their cars on the Reno trains.

The mess created by Iowa Pacific when they owned Key probably has some car owners still holding the bag for payment.

Hopefully, this new development is a positive for Reno service. But we'll see.

Posted from Android

Highspeed Wrote:
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> R.I.P. Fun & Snow trains.

For the record there hasn't been a Reno/Snow train operation in several winters. 

Not only PV owners, but those with reservations on the first couple of trains that were "snowed out" due to the high levels of snow over Donner never got refunds.
stash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fun/Snow train service has a problem getting
> equipment. Amtrak forced many car owners out of
> business. Add the stiff price increases and PV
> owners cannot afford to run their cars on the Reno
> trains.
>
> The mess created by Iowa Pacific when they owned
> Key probably has some car owners still holding the
> bag for payment.
>
> Hopefully, this new development is a positive for
> Reno service. But we'll see.
>
> Posted from Android

stash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fun/Snow train service has a problem getting
> equipment. Amtrak forced many car owners out of
> business. Add the stiff price increases and PV
> owners cannot afford to run their cars on the Reno
> trains.
>
> The mess created by Iowa Pacific when they owned
> Key probably has some car owners still holding the
> bag for payment.
>
> Hopefully, this new development is a positive for
> Reno service. But we'll see.
>
> Posted from Android

Virtually everyone on this board loved EEE when he ran the Hoosier, unfortunately he ran it into the ground! Now Key Holidays is a mess created by Iowa Pacific. Everything he ever touched including Amtrak Intercity and Amtrak Express Service was a mess. Thank goodness he has disappeared.

"Virtually everyone on this board loved EEE when he ran the Hoosier, unfortunately he ran it into the ground! Now Key Holidays is a mess created by Iowa Pacific. Everything he ever touched including Amtrak Intercity and Amtrak Express Service was a mess. Thank goodness he has disappeared."

Nailed it!  But he hasn't disappeared.  He has a string of unpaid creditors and a highly-leveraged fleet of historical equipment that will likely get torched when his chickens finally come home to roost.  A stunning example of what running a 1:1 scale toy train operation will get you, as so many people on this board advocate that Amtrak should do.  The guy sold every money-making operation Iowa Pacific had to fund the toy trains, and all there is to show for it is a bunch of angry creditors and late (or no) paychecks for the people kind enough to hang on and still work for this guy.  

Meanwhile, he'll continue to wear his "signature" hat, and strum his guitar...

 

another_view Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Virtually everyone on this board loved EEE when he
> ran the Hoosier, unfortunately he ran it into the
> ground! Now Key Holidays is a mess created by Iowa
> Pacific. Everything he ever touched including
> Amtrak Intercity and Amtrak Express Service was a
> mess. Thank goodness he has disappeared.

Whether it was fault of EEE for giving up the on time bonus payments to Amtrak for the Hoosier State can be debated, but regardless of his questionable financial practices, Amtrak is also at fault, so I want to make sure any attempts to deflect blame will fail.

EEE try to run the Colorado Ski Train in 2009, and in hindsight Amtrak hijacked that operation. Iowa Pacific was awarded $1.1 million by a federal court for Amtrak's obstruction. I think we have more than one villain in America's passenger rail "business."

WP17 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Highspeed Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > R.I.P. Fun & Snow trains.
>
> For the record there hasn't been a Reno/Snow train
> operation in several winters.

Yup, but even more for the record, United Rail is the renamed X-Train, yet absolutely no BidHitter jokes from the peanut gallery in more than 2 days. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/19 09:42 by cchan006.