Rocky Mountaineer Seattle

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CHamilton

CHamilton

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Jul 13, 2011
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Via Facebook: A friend says "The Rocky Mountaineer just entered the States, should be down in Seattle at 1p... It is their new run called the Coastal Passage....It's not going to be a daily train to Seattle this year. Next year it may be, as it had a good amount of people on it."

Anyone know any more about this?
 
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HERE is the correct link for the Seattle part. One of the consists left Seattle yesterday for Vancouver.

Anyone know if they are using the Amtrak station?

I rode the Banff to Vancouver train a few years ago.

Pictures HERE and HERE
 
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Again from Facebook: the Rocky Mountaineer at King Street Station, Seattle.

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This is SO expensive! $2,911! I know it's a cruise train, but I'm not even going to try to afford a ride on the Rock Mountaineer. This must be the fares it takes to make passenger trains profitable. At least I'm glad this train is making money and won't get cut like the rest of Canada.
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
This is SO expensive! $2,911! I know it's a cruise train, but I'm not even going to try to afford a ride on the Rock Mountaineer. This must be the fares it takes to make passenger trains profitable. At least I'm glad this train is making money and won't get cut like the rest of Canada.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. Somehow the idea of spending that kind of money for a couple of nights in a motel in Kamloops does not appeal to me. Now if they had sleepers... :)
 
I would really like to ride the Rocky Mountaineer, but the prices are just ridiculous. You can go on a seven-day cruise to Alaska for a lot less than a two-day trip from Vancouver to Calgary.
 
True to that. The Canadian is a bit cheaper, but it's still very expensive and it dosen't use the CPR route.

When I can get up to Vancouver again, I'll probably ride Greyhound Canada to Calgary. It's not quite the same scenery, but you still get to see lots of amazing mountains for only $45! That's got to be an amazing deal despite the fact that you have to sit in a DL3 seat with no such thing as a Sleeper.
 
I went ahead and split this topic back off since there were two very different matters being discussed, both of interest.

One serious question: I know that the Rocky Mountaineer has only planned to run this service as part of a package, but if they were to ramp it up to something resembling daily service, is there anything that would prevent them from selling a ticket for "just" Seattle-Vancouver? I know the price point would probably be a multiple of the Cascades, but when you look at those trains selling out with such regularity...I'd sincerely question the judgment of them not at least making a pass at that market.
 
They probably should take a run at it. A lot of people taking cruises in and out of Vancouver might patronize it since airfares to Seattle are a lot less than fares to Vancouver. Their fares would probably be very high for such a short run, but there are probably people who would like the luxury of the Rocky Mountaineer. Of course, they could also sell it as an addition to the regular Mountaineer route. They seem to do very well despite what I consider outrageous fares.
 
Two thoughts here:
First, they have three viable markets:
(1) Follow-through traffic onto their other routes. In this respect, the trip would serve as a feeder line into Vancouver, and I suspect they could do a decent amount of business with folks wanting a day or two in Seattle as well.
(2) Cruise-connecting passengers. This is likely bigger than anyone realizes, considering the fares into/out of Vancouver's airport. It's likely that by "training" folks down to Seattle and putting them on a flight out of the airport there, it's likely that RM could pocket a decent amount (say, $200+ per round trip) just on the fare differential, not to mention being able to sell folks on an easier customs process.
(3) Passengers just traveling SEA-VAC (both those on peak days of travel when the Cascades is sold out or close to it, and almost assuredly those they could put a "luxury weekend" package together for...remember, 48 hours out of Canada gets you the full $800/person duty exemption).

Second, on "isolation fares": Right now, the Cascades offers tickets SEA-VAC at $30/40/60/72 (the Ambus is $45), with BC being +$22. I would think that Rocky Mountaineer could probably sell seats at $100-ish each way and still get business (particularly if they're including food service of some sort each way...$100-120 each way with their normal discounting on the round trip should also be high enough to enable them to turn a profit on the run without freezing them out of the market). If they're getting a residual on hotel packages as well, they should be more than fine at that level.
 
Agreed totally, especially on items 2 and 3. But am highly skeptical that BNSF would sell RM slots, except at rates that would require fares exorbitant even by RM standards. And WSDOT already has an agreement with BNSF for more Cascades trains, starting in a couple of years, as soon as the track improvements they paid for are done. So the state would not be happy to see RM get slots first.
 

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