Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad — Attraction in Chama

Just because these people know how to run a train, does not mean that they know how to run a business. A business involves customers and they seemed to have forgotten the definition of a "customer", so I will have to use this review to remind them. A "customer" is someone who pays for services and expects to receive the services that they paid for. In this case, we paid for a "full day" of scenery from Chama, NM to Antonito, CO. Our full day was supposed to start at 8:30am. We arrive at the station at 8:00am as directed and are told that, due to weather conditions, their drivers are afraid to drive in the snow and so we will not be leaving until 10:00am. That is 1.5 hours of scenery that we lost (not to mention 1.5 hours that we wasted in our morning because they didn't even bother to call/e-mail us about the delay in departure).

Then, they tell us that we can not go all the way up to Antonito, but only up to Osier which is at the HALF way point between Chama and Antonito. Our question naturally after hearing that was what discount we would be receiving for this trip since we are not traveling a whole day, nor are we traveling the whole distance. Their answer: NONE. So me, being the logical one, calculated it out to explain to the desk clerks that all we are really looking for is to be refunded $20.00 from the $104 ticket price and it would be fair for all. NOPE. The only option they gave us was to not go on the train trip at all and be refunded the whole amount MINUS the $14 service fee, so not even a full refund.

They didn't seem to care that their customers have booked this trip months in advance and we either stayed overnight in a town with literally nothing else to do in it besides this train ride or woke up really early and drove the 55+ miles from out of town to take this train ride. I even asked them straight out: "how is this fair that we are paying for a full day of travel when we are neither getting the time nor the distance that we paid for?" Their answer: "you are still spending the same amount of time on the train" (one way up was supposed to be by bus, and the way down was supposed to be train, but in this case we rode the train both up and down to the half-way mark). Yes, I understand that we are spending the same amount of time on the train, but the point of this whole trip was to see the scenery from Chama to Antonito, regardless of the method of transportation. By the looks of the map they gave us of the route we were supposed to follow, it looks like we missed a lot of great scenery from Osier to Antonito.

It is a shame that these people didn't see this situation from their customers' point of view because they would have received 5 stars if all they did was give us a $20 bill. We understand the weather was not their fault, but the weather was not our fault either and we shouldn't have had to pay for it. I bet you any money they got their money back from the bus drivers who didn't drive that day. Bottom line: these people robbed us and I recommend you find another train ride before they...

I’ve been coming to the Christmas train with my kids for the last 11 years. Like everything, it shut down during Covid and when it started running again it’s been a very different experience. The train itself is magical, but many of the choices of the current administration have made for a less enjoyable experience. You used to be able to “pay” with canned food donations, then they raised the price to $5 a person, and this year it jumped up to $20 a person. Our family now pays $200 dollars to go on the Christmas train, making it almost inaccessible to regular families. Also, they now do assigned seating, instead of just letting you choose your own spot to sit. This year we were put in the middle of a large family who spent much of the ride yelling over us to each other. If that wasn’t annoying enough, they were constantly swearing. My young kids were so shocked and kept telling us that the people were saying bad words. We tried to go to the outside car, but it was so full and my kids got crushed by rowdy teens/adults. We sat for a short time in unoccupied seats until their original owners returned and asked us to move. We ended up spending the majority of the ride on the small platform between cars. Then when the ride was finished we tried to go up to the engine where every year we get a family picture. This year however the train’s elves wouldn’t let us near the engine, because a film crew wanted to film scenes for a Hallmark movie in front of the train engine. We waited around for them to finish, but they spent the entire break between runs filming, even filming the train leave for its next run. We were denied the opportunity to take a single picture with the engine, which was the most upsetting thing of all. This is why we drive all the way up to Chama- to see the steam engine, not the train cars. We just felt really cheated. Also, they no longer serve hot chocolate and cookies on the train. The last couple years they serve it in a small tent in the parking lot, which just isn’t the same. It’s very crowded and the cookies are no longer actually cookies. They’re basically prepackaged animal crackers and taste like cardboard. It’s just really sad for us, because visiting the steam train has been a tradition since moving to New Mexico and my kids always look forward to it. Now you get charged quadruple for an extremely subpar experience and I’m seriously considering making this our last year visiting the the Cumbres and...

I have been waiting for this trip for 6 months and was not disappointed. Every single member of the staff was fantastic. I would like to give special shout outs to Jennifer our car attendant, David our Conductor and Logan the Brakeman. They truly made our adventure special. Also shout outs to our Engineers Jeremy and C.D Llamal, they gave us a great trip and humored this old lady and signed here trip book! The service was impeccable. We chose one of the special trains, The Geology Train. It is a much longer trip which had a few hiccups. First it leaves at 7 am and the sleepy town does not have an all night diner. The solution is Fina's Diner ( see my review) They open and six am and if you call when they open you can have breakfast to go on the train with you. I wish I had done this. Hubby and I opted for the adult only parlor car which promised pastries and fresh fruit for breakfast. This is one of my disappointments on the trip, we got 1 doughnut, and no fruit. I did not pack snacks as there was also a food car on board. Unfortunately that food consisted of candy, chips and popcorn (none of which I can eat). Part of the ticket is lunch in Osier, which for our particular tour turned out to be 2 PM. The food at lunch was good and served cafeteria style with many options.

The Geology part was pretty cool. We had a number of folks on board and we made many stops to talk about the geology along the route. Most of the speaker forgot they were talking to people who may not know much about the topic. There was a lot of technical terms without much explanation of what that meant. There were two I found very informational and enjoyed, Andrew and Amy if you see this, Thanks for the great information. Amy gave a lot of insight into the hazards the RR faced in 1881. All of those hazards still exist and must be mitigated to ensure the safety of the passengers. All said and done we are already planning our next trip this year for one of their...