Former AT&SF Tracks in New Mexico

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

That’s part of the problem with the existing Southwest Chief route, not enough people live in that area to justify the service and not enough shippers exist in the area to justify much more than the occasional local freight. Everybody wants the Southwest Chief on its current route but nobody wants to pay for it.

[MidlandMike]

That is why I limited to only 20 trains a day each way. The other four each way are for existing traffic. You are correct, the maximum capacity is 24 trains each way each day, and this of course requires sharp dispatching and best use of passing sidings on a single track line. Some staging might be necessary both at Roper in Denver and at Grand Junction, but the yard capacity is there.

The other constraint on the Moffat is that it does not have the clearances for double stack. They could go by the UP Wyoming mainline.

[DwightBranch]

All I can say is that something’s gotta be done to keep the SW Chief on the Raton Pass mainline route. Without the SW Chief, SE Colorado and northern NM communities are left with virtually ZERO transportation options. Mudchicken has done an excellent job of explaining how NM has been a big failure in all this but I place even more blame on the totally inept CDOT. The Raton Pass mainline is also vital for future service coming out of Denver to connect with SW Chief at both La Junta and Trinidad.

Twenty million (and two million per year thereafter) is small potatoes for Kansas to maintain rail service (both freight and passenger) for the entire southwestern part of the state. After the old MP line to Pueblo was removed the Raton Pass line is virtually all there is. With the Heartland Flyer they could postpone the expense without any track being pulled up, but not necessarily in this case. We’ll see, but as this Bob Johnston piece noted discussions are underway.