Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway shutting down...maybe won't reopen...

[Dave V]

Unreal...  It's damned hard to get a seat on the trains in the summer so I'm not sure I understand how they don't have sufficient capital to make improvements:

http://www.kktv.com/content/news/Future-in-doubt-for-Pikes-Peak-Cog-Railway-a-Colorado-Springs-legacy-tourist-attraction-476757633.html

[wazzou]

I would imagine the refurbishment of an 8.9 mile cog railway system at the cost of doing most business today would be pretty staggering.

[railnerd]

Sounds like someone with a hotel management degree doesn't like trains…

-Dave

[C855B]

Sounds like someone with a hotel management degree doesn't like trains…

I was going to say something like that. Seen it several times in my late, great career - when management isn't interested in something, they trot out the mealy-mouthed "it's not our core business" language, then close down the department or division, or spin it off to somebody who cannibalizes it and then fires everyone. Even when it's profitable, or, heaven forbid, popular. It's the way business is done in the post-MBA era.

[Chris333]

Isn't the railroad the reason for the hotel? Or are there other reasons to stay there.

[Philip H]

Reading the original Gazette article I think the hotel doesn't want to spend the refurbishment money.  They keep talking about needing to talk to their stakeholder and analyze the cost to benefits and they can't get expertise domestically - but their own staff are probably experts, the local stakeholders quoted all say they like the line, and business on the rides is booming. There is mention of a new Summit House project in the offing and the City not being willing to kick in for the refurbishment costs, and my surmise is the hotel intends to use the drop in local revenues as a bargaining chip to try and get tax money for both those things.

[Dave V]

Colorado Springs has been on a crusade to increase tourism of late...wondering if the Broadmoor now has the city over the barrel.  The bad news is in the meantime a historic and wildly popular rail line will suffer and road traffic up the Pikes Peak highway will become insufferable.

[BCR751]

Reading the original Gazette article I think the hotel doesn't want to spend the refurbishment money.  They keep talking about needing to talk to their stakeholder and analyze the cost to benefits and they can't get expertise domestically

Sure sounds like MBA bafflegab to me.

Doug

[C855B]

...wondering if the Broadmoor now has the city over the barrel. ...

On the nose. The 21st-century approach to large public-interest business projects is to extort pressure city/county/state governments into underwriting most or all of the costs. Apparently this is CS's version of a pro sports stadium, "Pay for it or lose it."

[engineshop]

I know a lot of Europeans travel to the area to ride the train. No train, no reason to go, especially since it is a detour from other tourist places they usually visits.

[RBrodzinsky]

My daughter was thinking about taking my wife and me on the trip when we were there last fall. Missed my chance, it seems. Wouldn’t take much to get some of the Swiss engineers to give them a quick assessment.

[coosvalley]

I feel lucky to have ridden this a few years ago, followed by a trip up the other US cog railway(Mt. Washington) within the same month. The Pikes Peak ride was twice the length, half the price, so there's that. I also found the Pikes peak cars much more comfortable, though we had different cars on the way up vs. down on the Mt. Washington Cog, and one was much more comfy than the other.

Pikes Peak:












Mt Washington: