Passenger trains, like many transportation sectors, saw a huge decline in ridership during the Covid-19 pandemic but is reportedly experiencing a steady recovery. Rail travel declined significantly after it peaked in the first two decades of the 20th century, with the rise of plane travel and private automobiles fueling a stunning 84% drop in passenger rail travel between 19.
VIRTUAL RAILFAN YOUTUBE LIVE OFFLINE
Offline impactsĪll this virtual trainspotting has created unexpected real-world impacts, bringing a much-needed boost of tourism to struggling railroad towns as fans journey to see their favorite locations in person.
It’s largely an older crowd, with 60% of viewers over the age of 35.
With 108 cameras in 31 states, Virtual Railfan now sees an average of 12 million viewers a month, hailing from more than 200 countries, according to Cyr. Like many online services, Virtual Railfan saw activity explode when the pandemic hit, with numbers rising to a steady average of more than 20 million viewers a month. The fandom took off when Virtual Railfan migrated the streams to YouTube in May 2017, and at the urging of his growing viewer base, Cyr installed more cameras across the United States. The Virtual Railfan CEO and founder, Michael Cyr, with a train in LaPlata last year. “If you can’t be there, we’re going to be the next best thing.” Virtual Railfan takes in revenue from paid memberships that offer additional features like playbacks of older streams and advertisements from its YouTube channels. “We wanted to bring the whole experience,” Cyr said. The company advertises itself as offering one of the most realistic online trainspotting experiences, featuring live audio and 1080HD cameras – many of which can be moved to see different angles of the incoming locomotives. The following year, the first Virtual Railfan camera was set up in Folkston and attracted a few dozen viewers, a crowd that eventually grew to several hundred. Cyr said he was sitting on the platform of a rail station in Folkston, Georgia – a small town with a big local railfan culture – when he realized his hobby could be brought online, allowing more people to engage. One of the most popular is Virtual Railfan, founded in 2009 by a lifelong train obsessive named Michael Cyr. Today there are an increasing number of live rail-stream hubs, including Railwa圜ams, RailStream, and. “Some people keep the feed on 24 hours a day in the background because they like the familiarity of the regular passing of trains.” “A lot of people said during lockdown the camera really saved their sanity, because it was a way to connect with people they weren’t able to see in person at the time,” said Robert Scott, a railfan who volunteers as a moderator for a live camera in Chehalis, Washington.
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