Plans for ski train grind to a halt

Written on December 26, 2009 – 11:26 am | by Admin

Iowa Pacific Holdings LLC said late Monday it won’t operate the ski train between Denver and Winter Park after all.

The Chicago-based company tried on Dec. 23 to convince a federal judge to order Amtrak to provide crews for the ski train. Iowa Pacific sued Amtrak after talks between the two parties failed to get the ski train running by its scheduled Dec. 27 start date. Issues between the two sides revolve around insurance coverage, the number of people Amtrak needed to run the train, the safety of the equipment, and the financial stability of Iowa Pacific.

Iowa Pacific said it had contacted Amtrak after the judge’s ruling, but the two companies haven’t been able to reach an agreement.

Iowa Pacific will issue refunds for passengers who had booked passage on the ski train.

“The ski train is heavily reliant on advance bookings, which came to a complete halt last week,” said Ed Ellis, president of Iowa Pacific. “In addition to losing the revenue from the initial runs, it became clear that this delay will result in market uncertainty, resulting in insufficient sales for the train to be self-sustaining for this season. Unlike Amtrak, we do not receive any subsidy for operating passenger trains and as we have stated from the beginning, the ski train operation must be financially sound.”

Customers with reservations can contact skitrainservice@iowapacific.com or 877-726-RAIL to get a refund.

Iowa Pacific said the plan to start the ski train service for the 2009-2010 season came after six months of planning and discussions that involved Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration and track owner Union Pacific Railroad.

The old ski train, operated for 69 years by a company run by Denver entrepreneur Philip Anschutz, ceased operations last March and the train was sold to a Canadian company. Anschutz officials cited the high cost of insurance as one reason they were halting the ski train.

Marc Magliari, spokesman for Amtrak, said the problem with getting the ski train running rested with Iowa Pacific. He said Amtrak worked with Iowa Pacific for three months on a plan to run the trains, but two days before Amtrak planned to operate a test train and five days before the scheduled start of service, Iowa Pacific “could not provide to Amtrak a federally certified safe train to operate and adequate insurance. IPH has not been able to supply locomotives with adequate power and brakes to even test their rented railcars back and forth into the mountains.”

Perfect Business!