The Journal Gazette’s columnist Frank Gray writes in this September 7th piece:
“I wondered, though, how did ticket sales go for the October trips for the city? Usually, tickets for the train’s excursions sell out in a couple of days.
Well, in Fort http://www.snortrescue.org/buy/ Wayne, tickets went on sale Sunday and sold out in an hour and a half.
Four hundred people are on a waiting list if more cars are added to the train. Passengers include people from as far away as Florida, Texas and New Jersey. Right now, there’s some talk of running excursions to Chicago and other cities next year.
One inconvenient aspect, though, is that there is no suitable boarding spot in Fort Wayne. For the October excursions, for example, passengers will have to board at the Do it Best headquarters between Fort Wayne and New Haven.
There is a push to establish a home for the train near downtown Fort Wayne, possibly using some of the Legacy money. The train would have access to all possible routes.
The train, after all, is permitted to use all 22,000 miles of Norfolk-Southern track.
The problem is that creating a new base for the train would be expensive, upward of $15 million.
…
Fort Wayne is always looking for new ideas that will draw people into the city and get them to stay in the hotels and eat in the restaurants and see the sights.
This train is unique, and it’s proved its ability to draw crowds.
“We have an amazing zoo,” Lynch said. The train, he said, is like having the last tyrannosaurus rex and no zoo to put it in.
