Railbikes to start operating at Newport RI

A railbike tourist operation is scheduled to commence operations April 8, 2017 out of Portsmouth, RI (next to Newport) on Aquidneck Island.

See https://www.railexplorers.net/book

Rail bikes?...This would seem to imply that regular rail trips are dead at Newport. Is that correct? The website for the Old Colony appears to be out of service. Too bad, a nice run, even though they had to negotiate the entry/exit through the Navy property. Status of the equipment?

Steve

The dinner train is still operating. I can't find any news about it shutting down even on the facebook page.

From the dinner train website:

Our Portsmouth station location is also the departure point for Rail Explorers, an exciting new way to enjoy the scenery and history of Aquidneck Island using custom-designed, pedal powered rail bikes. Our schedules have been timed so visitors can enjoy rides both north and south along the line using the rail bikes and the train.

No change to the train schedules. They're just exercizing some leeway afforded by being separated from the national rail network to allow this off-hours.

highrail wrote:Rail bikes?...This would seem to imply that regular rail trips are dead at Newport. Is that correct? The website for the Old Colony appears to be out of service. Too bad, a nice run, even though they had to negotiate the entry/exit through the Navy property. Status of the equipment?

Steve

The Old Colony historical operation folded a couple of years ago, I believe. I last rode it about 3 years or so ago, a very nice trip. The non-historic for profit dinner / ice cream trains are still running.

OK, so anybody know what these "railbikes" look like? I'm picturing (hoping?) for something like a 19th century "velocipede"

might be the B&ML model types.

They have 2 and 4 person. There are pictures on website if you go through the reservation process- you see picture before you book.

Ken W2KB wrote:The Old Colony historical operation folded a couple of years ago, I believe.

According to Wikipedia it is closed and has been for a couple of years (just finding out now for myself), what happened!?

The railbikes look neat, but I think I'd still trust my MT-19 ...

b&m 1566 wrote:

Ken W2KB wrote:The Old Colony historical operation folded a couple of years ago, I believe.

According to Wikipedia it is closed and has been for a couple of years (just finding out now for myself), what happened!?

Insufficient revenue from ridership to cover equipment maintenance and other costs and dwindling number of volunteers from what I recall reading at the time.

Dinner train will backfill what trains were lost when the historical operation folded. New owners Seaview are bullish on Newport's prospects and want to invest in more general-purpose in-season transit on Aquidneck I.