Re: Tours Cancelled Steamrail Tips

["John Wayman" <trecker@bigpond.com>]

There are also those patrons on these tours that hate having young kids
running up and down the corridors on these tours.

The presence of your kids may detract from someone else's experience. So why
not shut up about alcohol, whist inflicting your kids on the other patrons,
whom it seems you expect to be more tolerant than you are,

Cheers
John Wayman

David <valley123@xtra.co.nz> wrote in message
01be984a$74046700$0eb337d2@pentium">news:01be984a$74046700$0eb337d2@pentium...
> 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
>