I had been told a number of times by officials through the years that the railroad made a
modest profit, the motel did really well (expanded not once, but twice), the gift shop did really well & the restaurant (Max & Thelmas) also did really well. While acknowledging that it is quite expensive & labor intensive to operate steam, especially big steam at higher speeds, this line has been doing so since the latter part of 1989. They have full time marketing people in Flagstaff unless the offices have recently been moved. The staff has worked with tour operators and has also added the extremely popular & sold out Polar Express trains in late Fall. Be interesting to see real financial figures for the last few years.