X-Train Chugging Along?

[cirdan]

<sarcasm>

Put in plain English this means "We have never run a single train successfully. But please ignore that and let us consolidate all your successful operations and screw it up together"

</sracasm>

Maybe the opposite is the case. In acquiring succesful operations, X-Train will be acquiring competent management structures and staff who know how the market works and can run charter rail services profitably.

(wishful thinking)

 

[George Harris]

Roy Disney: "Branding is something you do with cattle." And let's face it, this is simply bovine.

Nice Quote Lion! And "Handling is for Animals, not People!" Bill Russell/Basketball Great

Ever since I heard it, I consider Roy Disney's statement one of the best concerning business pretentions of all time.

As to this:

"We are looking to consolidate the resources of a fractional industry of independent passenger-rail services under an umbrella which gives our affiliated companies economies of scale and greater marketing reach," said Michael Barron, X Train's chairman and chief executive officer. "We can provide a path to liquidity for those owners who wish to sell their enterprise as an exit strategy or owners can retain 100 percent ownership of their business operating under the extended service umbrella of our company."

grab your checkbook and run for the nearest exit. When I hear this sort of stuff, or a lot of the other chiche speak like "international best practice" "out of the box thinking" etc, I tend to feel like I am about to lose my lunch.

 

[Anderson]

Honestly, the concept (consolidating some of the disparate rail excursion groups into something larger, and presumably more organized and able to do things with any sort of regularity) isn't bad. But considering the random shots in the dark, I don't see anything happening.

It's sort of like the idea of running "first class commuter" service...there's a market, I suspect, especially on some of the super-high-capacity lines with stops Amtrak covers either sporadically or not at all (NYG-NHV, NYP-Hamilton, etc.). At the same time, while I haven't seen the investment documents, these guys don't seem to have any real plans together beyond a few excursions.

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

This morning I drove by the siding where the the 2 cars are. The are still there and it looks like some work was done, I do not know the color codes but there were new plugs/connectors for 440 and control. New blue Black White sockets on each end. Could not tell what was between the 2 cars, not enough light.

 

[Anderson]

I got this in my inbox last night:

X Train Holdings (OTCQB: XTRN) Inks Securities Purchase Agreement With Ascendiant Capital Partners for up to $10 Million
------------------------------

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LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Apr 15, 2014) - X Train Holdings (OTCQB: XTRN (http://www.marketwired.com/news_room/Stock?ticker=XTRN) ), a consolidator of independently owned passenger rail operators and operator of rail entertainment facilities, announced today that the Company has executed a Securities Purchase Agreement with Ascendiant Capital Partners ("Ascendiant") to provide up to $10 million in capital.

Ascendiant Capital Partners is the parent company of Ascendiant Capital Markets, a full-service investment banking, equity research, market making, and securities trading firm focused on public companies, and institutional and accredited investors.

X Train intends to use capital from the facility with Ascendiant Capital Partners to acquire existing passenger rail service companies, and for general working capital purposes on an as-needed basis.

-----------------------------------

The short version of the release is that they've secured $10m in funding through an agreement,..which should be enough to cover refurbishing about 12-15 cars. Looks like they might have enough money to make this work.

 

[RobertB]

It sounds more like they've gotten enough money to fund golden parachutes for the owners of companies they buy. They describe themselves first as a "consolidator", which probably says something about the target audience of this press release.

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

About 2 hours ago I drove by the siding where they have the 2 cars stored in Vegas. No visible change in the cars, but there is a huge change in the weeds around the car. They are so tall that the rails are hidden and some are as tall as the steps.

 

[NorthShore]

The stock went through a reverse split awhile back and has seriously sunk to levels not alot higher than before that action.

 

[CHamilton]

Some of X-Train's rolling stock is appearing on the Santa Fe Southern.

 

[GG-1]

Some of X-Train's rolling stock is appearing on the Santa Fe Southern.

Aloha

Interesting, I wonder when they took that picture. It looks like it was shot just after the cars arrived in Vegas. About a month or so ago the weeds were about 1/3 of the way up the car. About 2 weeks ago they had been trimmed. 3 days ago I saw a food commercial they shot about the meals that will be served. A neighbor of mine owns stock in the company. So far it is a bad investment.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Hola Eric! Is it Summer yet? LOL Guess Vegas will be humming for the Holiday Weekend as the suckers, er tourists hit the strip! LOL

It certainly seems like it is a bad investment, and I'm wondering if anyone will ride a dinner/ brunch train to Lamy @ such high prices? Perhaps "investing" in a Casino, as an owner/not customer is a better bet??!!!

 

[Anderson]

Hola Eric! Is it Summer yet? LOL Guess Vegas will be humming for the Holiday Weekend as the suckers, er tourists hit the strip! LOL

It certainly seems like it is a bad investment, and I'm wondering if anyone will ride a dinner/ brunch train to Lamy @ such high prices? Perhaps "investing" in a Casino, as an owner/not customer is a better bet??!!!

Well, remember that Las Vegas wasn't built on the winners.

Snark aside, casino stocks have done pretty well over the last few years. Put together some 5-10 year charts on Yahoo Finance if you want more information.

Just as an aside: LVRE was always, at best, a speculative investment (not that I wasn't tempted to speculate at times), and there are better passenger rail-related investments at the moment.

 

[CHamilton]

X Train passenger-rail service begins in Santa Fe

Passenger-rail service on the X Train, a luxury travel service, launched last week in Santa Fe, N.M., the Las Vegas Railway Express Inc. announced on Tuesday.

The route travels from Santa Fe to the rail town of Lamy, N.M., the site of the original terminus of the AT&SF railroad. The X Train is shipping two of its "Club X" luxury-service passenger cars to Santa Fe for inclusion on the route, Las Vegas Railway Express officials said in a press release.

 

[RobertB]

It seems like it would make sense to take Amtrak to Lamy and then take the X Train from Lamy to Santa Fe... except that I suspect it's a lot cheaper to take Amtrak to Albuquerque and take the RailRunner to Santa Fe. What exactly is the selling point of the trip to Lamy, NM, pop 218?

 

[Green Maned Lion]

The point is they are X-Train and finally found a rail line willing to take the trash can they call a train for a price they can afford so that they can say they turned a wheel in revenue service. This will allow them to be dynamic and leverage the synergies and create resource flows. Which will allow them to talk like they are actually a corporation full of people desperately trying to justify their unjustified pay checks.

 

[user 1215]

It makes me sick how there are some folks who are raking in a ton of cash off of poor investors. This move is likely just a ploy to make them look like they are trying, rather than losing investor's cash.

I suspect the Santa Fe Southern made more money on the one episode of Breaking Bad than it ever did as a tourist train.

Maybe they can run all the way to Las Vegas (NM). But then, they may have to reroute on the Transcon...

 

[the_traveler]

Maybe they can run all the way to Las Vegas (NM).

Well, if they do they will make good on their originally plan to operate from LAmy to Las Vegas!

 

[CHamilton]

X Train re-routes to Western Alignment

The Las Vegas Railway Express, Inc., (X Train) has begun the engineering of the route to Las Vegas from Los Angeles on what it calls the Western Alignment.
The original plan by X Train was to traverse the Cajon Pass to Barstow and then north to Las Vegas. As capacity on that route became restricted, X Train reached out to University of Nevada Las Vegas's (UNLV) Rail Engineering program headed by Dr. Harry Teng to plan the logistics of an alternative route to Las Vegas. The UNLV plan is consistent with the Regional Transportation Commission's plan of 2007, which shows access to Las Vegas via rail from the west rather than via the heavily-trafficked Cajon Pass.

 

[jis]

So does this mean that now they plan to go up the Antelope Valley Line to Palmdale and thence onto Mojave and onto Barstow? Or do they want to go part ways up Cajon and then follow the Palmdale cutoff? The wording strongly seems to suggest the Antelope Valley routing. Either way it will add quite some distance to the journey between LA and Las Vegas quite a bit over relatively slow trackage too.

 

[Anderson]

I was wondering the same thing. I just can't figure out how they're looking to route this line to save my life.

 

[Paulus]

I was wondering the same thing. I just can't figure out how they're looking to route this line to save my life.

Right on up into their nostrils most likely.

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

There is a map that was sent to me. I will have to search for it again.

Last Sunday I was chatting with a former Amtrak Engineer who was on the DW told me there were 4 possible routes that could be used between LA and Vegas. He said 2 of them did not use the Cahon Grade, which is slightly over3%.

I do not Know Antelope Valley, but Barstow was on the Map I saw.

 

[jis]

Yes that looks like the Antelope Valley routing.

The only fly in the ointment of course is that Barstow - Mojave is not exactly a non-busy line either. LA to Barstow via Antelope Valley may be as long as 5+ hours in and of itself as has been mentioned on TO. Amtrak takes 3:40 or so via the much shorter and somewhat faster Cajon route between LA and Barstow.

 

[CHamilton]

The X Train [on Facebook]

Hey guys: Got our logistics report from UNLV's Rail Engineering Program's Dr. Harry Teng. It is a fine piece of work and analyzes the option of a train from LAto Vegas using a Western alignment via Mojave. The school is now working on a similar study for the eastern alignment over Cajon Pass.


We continue to move forward on the logistics of the route. Our plan is to have several runs before the end of the year to test things out & then the big one for New Year's Eve 2015. We have the consist we want to use identified. Stay tuned for real pictures on our cars we will be using. Working on the station lease downtown too.

We will be posting the ticket sales as soon as we firm up the operating times for the runs this year. Look forward to having you all on board the X Train soon.

 

[Paulus]

They had $1,003 cash on hand at the end of 2014, somehow I don't think they'll actually be doing any runs