Grand Canyon Train Picks Up Steam After Pandemic Setback

Tourism boost creates growth issues for Williams

By Peter Corbett, QCBN

This past winter, while icy roads cut vehicle traffic to Grand Canyon 22% in the first quarter, Grand Canyon Railway (GCR) powered through all the snow with a 5% increase in ridership.

Train travelers were treated to a snow-blanketed South Rim and photographers scored images of a century-old steam locomotive puffing smoke into the frigid air.

“We’re chugging along and only seeing more and more people coming out to visit,” said Sam Langner, Grand Canyon Railway vice president of sales. “It’s good to feel like we’re back to pre-2020 business.”

The Williams-based heritage train bounced back from a pandemic slowdown that cut its passenger count 18% in 2020. Last year, GCR was just 1,500 passengers shy of the 191,000 passengers it carried to the South Rim in 2019.

That’s good news for Xanterra

Travel Collection, which owns and operates the train and has hotels on both ends of the 64-mile route between Williams and the Canyon. It’s also good for Grand Canyon Village, since the train keeps roughly tens of thousands of cars out of the congested National Park each year.

GCR’s rebound is also good for the economy of Williams, known as

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