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Southwest Chief “summit” set for April 10
Dear Mrs. Freburg,
In the interest of fairness, I urge you to forward this opinion to those at the “Amtrak Preservation Summit:”
Since the title of this gathering is the “Amtrak Preservation Summit,” those wishing to truly preserve the long distance network should urge Amtrak to immediately abandon any attempt to retain the Southwest Chief on its current route between Newton, Kansas and Albuquerque, NM, and immediately dedicate scarce resources to moving the train to its logical and less costly route via Wichita, KS, Amarillo, TX, and Clovis, NM.
The current Southwest Chief routing between Newton and Albuquerque is simply an untenable situation due to the irreversible fact that there is no freight traffic between La Junta, CO and Lamy, NM (some 280 miles), nor will there likely ever be, and that due to the grades (up to 3.5 percent, some of the steepest in American railroading) there will never, ever be any through freight trains operated on that part of the route. Therefore, unless additional long distance trains are operated (which seems unlikely due Amtrak funding constraints), the Southwest Chief will always be the only train operated in this segment and Amtrak will be responsible for contributing 100 percent of the cost of operating the route.
While current estimates are up to $300 million over the next 10 years to maintain the Southwest Chief on its current route, this would not be the end of the extra expenses, as being the only train to use much of the route, the additional costs to Amtrak would continue in perpetuity.
Unfortunately, “Long Distance Trains” tend to be lumped together in many discussions about Amtrak. Long Distance Trains do not enjoy the economies of scale associated with other routes that have multiple frequencies, and they tend to have auxiliary costs such as providing dining and sleeping car service. Therefore many consider Long Distance Trains as an unnecessary drain on Amtrak resources and are frequent
Hiring Bob Dole to advocate preservation of Amtrak service is like Israel hiring Adolph Hitler to preserve Jews. Ill advised at best.
While I sympathize with the communities that may lose service, I would be happy with whatever option preserves the train in its entirety. I am of the demographic that uses the entire route from Chicago to Los Angeles, so the routing doesn’t really matter to me anymore as long as it still runs at all.
I have moved. New address is 2801 NE 60th St., Kansas City, MO 64119. Pls route to proper dept. have no forms to use. no mags… thanks ,hank
I have moved. New address is 2801 NE 60th St., Kansas City, MO 64119. Pls route to proper dept. have no forms to use. no mags… thanks ,hank
I think this is an interesting point of public policy. Amtrak is acting (or at least claiming to act) in the public interest and provide passenger service to a set of stations. BNSF is claiming to act in its private interest and essentially abandon this right-of-way. Does Amtrak have eminent domain authority to acquire the right-of-way, what should BNSF be compensated, and would Amtrak’s acquisition and continued operation of the line be in the public interest? Alternatively, is there a deal that can be struck that would incent BNSF to make adequate investment in the corridor to retain a private interest as well as a public benefit?
It’s situations like this that in the long, long term may lead to railroad rights-of-way being managed like the highway and airway rights-of-way. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing, but a very possible outcome.
i hope it stays through newton.
It seems to me that railroads may be the last bastion of history, something that the American public appears to care little about. Rerouting the Chief would essentially remove the entire link to the Santa Fe Railroad (ATSF). Even though it never ran directly to Santa Fe, at least the shuttle from Lamy gave it some legitamcy.
I traveled this route on Tuesday of last week as I have many times before. I’m wondering, and no one has said, what are the visual and geographical advantages of travel over the Transcon route for passengers? While I’m not opposed to change, I would not wish to see this train bypassing Lamy (the Santa Fe connection) and Albuquerque. Is it possible to proceed on the proposed route and include those stations? I would push for the present route if that can’t be guaranteed.
To Mark Meyer: You’re from Texas-Oh. Texas already has three Amtrak through trains- now soon to get a fourth with your plan. These other states with significant ridership and fairly significant cities will lose their service.
Your fiscal assessment is correct however, but I don’t believe it is all about $$. This is transportation for the masses, not just for LA and CHI.
Bypass ALBQ? A principal stop on the Southwest Chief along with the other stops through NM, CO,KS. Seems counterintuitive to take the Chief off the current, and historical long standing route. Some things just are more important than cost efficiency.
This current route needs to be preserved.
Add several Albuquerque to Denver trains a day, and regional freight haulers, as there has to be a viable use of that line. Or failing that, reroute the train.
Bring back the San Francisco Chief:)
Kidding aside, it AMAZES me that the AMTRAK honchos have never discussed with the freight railroads abour possible ‘leveraging’ techniques to increase rail pasenger service.
Just think what a POWERFUl combination that AMTRAK and the AAR could be in they learned to ‘play well’ together.