Re: Tours Cancelled Steamrail Tips

["David" <valley123@xtra.co.nz>]

Hi all

I have been on a few trips throughout my time and I know of a lot of people
with young families who will no longer go on Steamrail  trips because they
do not like their young members of their family seeing drunk people sitting
next to them speaking with horrible language, acting the fool and things
like this.

Family people want a trip where there are nice people to talk to, friendly
atmosphere & room to move.  Eight a compartment is far to many in my eyes
as we all know people like their space. I wonder if there should be a dry
part of the train with no alcohol allowed so people with families are
guaranteed to be comfortable and enjoy their trip.  This would be good
excuse for them to come back. 
Steamrail has no smoking parts so I can not see why there can not be a
alcohol free carriage or two. There will always be us railfans who will
ride the trains but there are so many more people out there that could come
but are turning away because of issues like the one above.
Steamrail needs to cater now more than ever for the wider community as well
as looking after the railfans.

I enjoy all Steamrail trips and hope to ride on many more as being a
member.

I do not mean these comments to be hurtful in any way but these are issues
that I have seen while being on these tours that should be addressed.

Steamrail also should think of including a club car like Moorabool with
seating so people can come out of their compartments and sit around and
talk etc. 
Moorabool is left in the depot on most trips when it could be added to the
train for 
the use of passengers and for the use of Steamrail to advertise their
upcoming trips
and membership.  Many people have little idea of what Steamrail does
besides the train and that carriage would be a fine place to display
Steamrail.
It would not cost much more to have that on every train that runs providing
room for people to sit and talk to each other and also for Steamrail to
advertise future excursion, sell their souvenirs etc.  The passengers want
to talk to other people in the train & get out of their compartment.

I have always enjoyed other tours where there have been special carriages
like Norman, Murray and Yarra because they are different, provide a
different view rather than the confined compartment. Norman is good because
it is enjoyable to sit back with a soft drink, watching the rails slide
from under you as speed along.

I have been on some SRHC tours and they always have had a dining car
available to the people and bookings always are full for this.  In one
issue of Newsrail, it was said that they were even looking for another
dining car to add to the train.

When the train stops, people get off and go to the shop to buy lunch,
Steamrail could have lunch provided in a dining car for example to keep the
money from the passengers aboard the train. The Kiosk is fine, but I think
that the souvenirs should be in another part of the train, away from the
food where people can have a good look at the entire collection available
for purchase (Eg on a table inside Moorabool).

So from this I hope Steamrail can see that people just do not want to sit
in a compartment all the trip, they want to go throughout the train, have a
look at the displays, have a meal in style in a dining car like the old
days.

Steamrail needs to add more on board attractions to their train as above to
draw people in and to get the extra money. Steamrail already has these
attractions sitting dormant in their depot while they could be used to make
money on trips.

>From writing this I do not mean to hurt or discourage anyone but this is
where I can see an opening for Steamrail to cash in on and to improve on.

If you have the available equipment, may as well use it.

Kind Regards

David


Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au> wrote in article
<3731938A.54E1@efs.mq.edu.au>...
Richard Flinders wrote:
> 
> Steamrail regrets to announce the cancellation of both the Deniliquin and
> Echuca tours in mid May.
> We have tried to run tours even at a loss to give some stability to the
fan
> market. However the last few tours have not been profitable and we cannot
> continue to cover losses.
> What's the problem, lack of destinations? competition from other
> entertainment? high prices? Wish we knew!

One problem is that your advertising leaflets have become singularly
unattractive, in both the visual and contents senses. A tour leaflet
needs to sell the attractions of the tour to all likely market niches,
whereas the recent Steamrail leaflets seem to assume that people will be
convinced of the merits of travelling just by reading the bare facts
(and even some of the bare facts don't seem to be there).

Eddie Oliver