Turnauckas brings a customer-service mentality to Patriot Rail's expanding scenic rail business
11/19/2024
By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor
Before he entered the railroad business, Robert Turnauckas spent several years working in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Turnauckas launched his career at SeaWorld in San Diego, where for 11 years he worked first in operations, sales and marketing. The job exposed him to the importance of providing good customer service. Toward the end of his theme park tenure, he was assigned to the events and catering side of the business, where he received additional training in providing top-notch service to customers.
After SeaWorld, Turnauckas moved on to the hotel sector, joining Marriott International and its subsidiary, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. The last property he was assigned to while there was as opening executive for the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, a 54-acre vacation property overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After a stint there, Turnauckas was tapped to become a partner with a regional travel management company in San Diego.
It was through his hospitality and tourism experience that Turnauckas eventually found his way into the rail business, when a former customer tipped him off to an opening at Metrolink, the commuter railroad that serves Southern California. The railroad was looking for someone to improve customer service.
“[Metrolink] was looking for someone with my background: somebody who could sell, someone who understood customer service and someone who didn’t understand trains. And basically, that was me,” says Turnauckas. “They were looking for someone who could think outside the box.”
At that time, Metrolink was looking to overhaul its safety culture and operating practices, including customer service. The turnaround was prompted by the 2008 tragedy in Chatsworth, California, where a Metrolink train collided head-on with a Union Pacific Railroad train, killing 25 people and injuring 135. The collision prompted a federal investigation into Metrolink and led to the passage of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
Patriot Rail’s Granite State Rail Bikes offers a tour along the shores of Lake Winnisquam, New Hampshire. Patriot Rail Co.It was while he was at Metrolink that Turnauckas met John Fenton, who was brought in as CEO in 2010 to help get the railroad back on track post-Chatsworth. After spending two years focused on turning around Metrolink, Fenton returned to freight rail and signed on as president and CEO at Patriot Rail. Turnauckas followed Fenton to Patriot Rail, starting out as a manager and then transitioning to chief commercial officer.
Given his experience with freight and passenger rail — combined with his sales, marketing and customer service experience in hospitality and tourism — it likely surprised no one when in October Turnauckas was designated to lead Patriot Rail’s new excursion division, which will focus on improving and expanding the company's scenic train business.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” he says. “When they offered me the position as president of the excursion division, I said I would love to take it and build it.”
Although primarily known as a short line and regional freight-rail operator, Patriot Rail owns three scenic excursion railroads in two states, with plans to launch a fourth in a third state in 2025. The company entered the scenic railroad business in 2015 when it acquired the Georgia-based Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, which now hosts about 100,000 riders per year. The tour starts in downtown Blue Ridge at the historic depot, built in 1905 and recently renamed after Fenton, and travels into the Chattahoochee National Forest. Visitors also may Blue Ridge on a new journey onboard custom-built four-person electric bikes along a 5.7-mile trip through the North Georgia foothills.
In 2023, Patriot Rail acquired two New Hampshire tourist railroads: the Hobo and the Winnipesaukee Scenic railroads, which combined operate across 54 miles of historic track through the White Mountains and Lake region of the Granite State.
The railroads serve Lincoln, Plymouth, Meredith and Weirs Beach on Lake Winnipesaukee, as well as the railroad station in Laconia, New Hampshire. A rail bike tour in Laconia offers a tour along Lake Winnisquam.
Turnauckas is working on opening the company’s newest scenic train in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in mid-summer 2025. It will be the first excursion train Patriot Rail will develop from scratch. The company purchased and is renovating former Ringling Brothers Circus rail cars that will serve as the Gettysburg train; the track they’ll operate on was once part of a scenic route that shut down in the 1990s.
“We feel Gettysburg is going to be a very exciting area for us because there are 3.7 million to 4 million tourists in that area annually,” he says.
The Gettysburg train tour will appeal to multiple audiences, including Civil War and general U.S history buffs and school groups. The historical significance of President Abraham Lincoln’s administration also intersects with railroad history in the region: Lincoln played a pivotal role in the construction of the first transcontinental railroad by signing the Pacific Railway Act of 1862.
“As a matter of fact, our Gettysburg train tracks go right by where President Lincoln got off the train to deliver the Gettysburg address,” notes Turnauckas.
He believes the time is right for Patriot Rail to expand its excursion business, as scenic train tours in the United States are gaining in popularity, and travel by rail allows riders to view landscapes and scenery they could not view by car.
In addition to developing the Gettysburg Railway, Turnauckas is building up the marketing for all four scenic trains through an increased online presence, creating a “robust” website featuring booking options, schedules and social media content to engage viewers and, hopefully, potential riders.
“We’re also going to be looking at partnerships — how to collaborate with local hotels, tourism boards and historical societies,” he says. “That will help promote the railways and attract a diverse audience.”
Moreover, Turnauckas hopes to develop special promotions, discounts for group books, various seasonal events and annual collectors’ events. He’s working on a plan to have the company represented at travel trade shows to spread the word about Patriot Rail’s excursion offerings.
“We want to build and strengthen our brand awareness,” Turnauckas explains. “The target audience is individual travelers, bus tour companies — that’ll be strong for us. We also have to start looking more closely at local residents to see how we can get the communities involved, such as through educational groups, colleges, and other institutions that are seeking educational experiences.”
Turnauckas sometimes gets questions from his freight-rail peers who wonder how tourist trains will mesh with Patriot Rail’s short-line freight business. But in the rail business, good customer service matters regardless of what those trains are carrying, Turnauckas believes.
“If we can drive that idea home, it will be a wonderful opportunity for us,” he says. “I know we can do it. We have a management view that really believes in that idea. And now, [in addition to] moving commodities or freight products, we’re moving people.”
