Yes, have been on 7:30 departures for photo charters, but were I taking a wife and a few children to Durango for vacation I'd be more likely eating at 7:30 and taking a later train. Let's hope they can manage to do almostr as many riders on 3 trains as they did last year with 4.

It could be a crisis for the crew of the not-running train though, if they are not hired this year.

About the oil thing...

I discuss that on several other internet forums, and one thing that strikes me is how provincial Americans can be in their views. Americans often presume this oil crisis is about America somehow; done by Americans, or to Americans. Not an entirely unreasonable assumption, given that the 1973 and 1990 crises were. People also seem to presume that the crisis will end and oil prices will return to "normal"; again not unreasonable, as prices have done exactly that in every other crisis. And there are the usual factors - speculation, weak dollar - at work.

However the ruling factor I see is India and China rapidly stepping up to become first world countries. Their numbers are so great - 8 times our population. America's 5% of the world's population consumed 25% of its resources because no one else could afford them. That's no longer true, and I believe it's an irrevocable change. Prices may recover somewhat, but I don't think we'll again see $2/gallon gas, let alone $1/gallon.

We as railway museums need to live in that world. Both in the petty sense, worrying about visitor count -- and in the grand sense, telling the story of how rails did change the world and could change it again in this age.