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Cash for ‘Southwest Chief’ track upgrades now in hand
Its a bit of a shame that there is no mechanism for assessing BNSF for each mile per hour over current freight maximums for any increase in that maximum due to the expenditure of grant monies to upgrade to welded rail.
If it owned, how can bnsf downgrade? owned means not current owner. If bnsf still owns it then everyone else are suckers, bnsf can pay all, it just put amtrak and the towns in a corner at it blinked, but, however I dont know who owns it now. Dont Trains Mag have proofreaders before publication?
Don’t?? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a proofreader for “comments”.
Time to join the bandwagon, State of New Mexico.
Previous stories indicate that BNSF will contribute significantly to helping pay the upgrade costs.
BNSF has no interest in maintaining a lightly trafficked freight line to passenger train standards, so if the taxpayers want passenger service over it, track upgrades are part of the cost. Personally, I think the taxpayers would be better off rerouting the Chief through Amarillo, using the money to upgrade track for a Denver-Kansas City service, possibly via La Junta, and running a thruway bus between Denver and Albuquerque connecting with the Chief and the Zephyr. The bus would be far faster than any train over Raton. This approach, using the bus over slow portion of the route, has worked well for California over Tehachapi.
Now if only the old Rock Island were in place and in good condition between Oklahoma City and Amarillo, the Chief could serve Oklahoma City and offer connections with the Heartland Flyer!
I think BNSF’s bluff should be called to get them to pay more because I truly believe they don’t want Amtrak to be moved to the Transcon.
@Landon, California using the bus from Bakersfield to Los Angeles is not just because of the slower speed the train would take…it’s also a more direct route than going via Tehachapi and Mojave, which is a very out of the way routing(the Grapevine/Interstate 5 is a straight shot into the L.A. Basin).
Landon, I’d rather spend 5 hours on a train than 3 hours on a bus. Furthermore, the Raton Pass route is beautiful, and a great reason for taking the train. It’s a national treasure that we should not lose.
Dennis, I would not be surprised if, with upgraded tracks, BNSF started sending more freight over Raton Pass. Notice how BNSF took federal money to upgrade the Devils Lake route which they claimed was used only by Amtrak, and then they started running more freight there. That’s OK with me as long as they give the Chief priority, and give the tracks the increased maintenance the freights will make needed.
Joe, I would rather spend 5 hours on a train than 3 on a bus too. I have ridden this train and it is a scenic line, though not as “Grande” as that on the Zephyr. The problem is that without freight traffic, we will continue to have to maintain a lot of track for 2 trains a day, and BNSF isn’t going to pay for it, nor should they. If the track maintenance cost is included in the costs, the subsidy compared to revenues becomes ridiculous, giving ammunition to opponents of long distance trains and passenger trains in general. This is why I think it is time to give up this fight, route the train via Amarillo, and substitute a thruway bus over Raton. I don’t really like it either but I think fighting for services that cost a lot of money for a few passenger miles jeopardizes the entire long distance system.
By the way, I sincerely hope I am wrong. If the line is upgraded, I would be delighted if BNSF brought back enough freight that they would continue maintaining it and the Chief could live happily ever after. It just doesn’t seem likely to me.
As I hear it, BNSF is paying to keep Amtrak off the transcon through Amarillo. Even after double tracking Abo Canyon, I have seen trains blocking crossings for up to half an hour waiting to go through Vaughn, which was more than twenty miles away from the crossing. That part of the country there are few public crossings. Before Abo Canyon’s second track opened, a rancher told me he would drive down the right of way a quarter mile and cross under a trestle to get out to US 60.
I grew up in Garden City, and this is a good thing. Ever since the city renovated the station nearly 20 years ago, their ridership numbers have grown steadily month-by-month, to the point that it’s one of the busiest of the 6 stations in the state.
BNSF runs enough grain shuttles out of GC to warrant the track upgrades, and it would allow them to tie-in traffic from Colorado to the yard at Dodge City.
actually taking place today is something I think might surprise a lot of folk. In Amarillo just south of the old depot a siding is being built of approx. 3000 ft. in length. Plus, another siding is being built next in area north of east 3rd street between Arthur and Osage. It is being built with 2 forks, each long enough for 17 85 ft. railcars. (Auto racks ?)? This is in addition to the Already existing Auto Terminal south of 34th street. Now what could be fixing to happen that is all hush-hush?