It appears that the State of New Mexico will not or cannot complete their Agreement to buy this line segment from BNSF. BNSF does not use or plan to use it and therefore has no incentive to maintain it to AMTRAK operation standards.
It is in the DOT overall plan for HSR, although not imminently, but in view of New Mexico’s withdrawal perhaps this is an opportunity for the US Government to reallocate a relatively small amount of the HSR funds and acquire this 200 mile line from Trinidad, CO to Lamy, NM.
I thought from past readings this line was the next step in the completion of the NM Commuter service announced some time back ( Road Runner Service(?) from Albuquerque to Belen.
Did New Mexico run out of funds?
I thought I had read that this deal for the Raton Line was already committed from bothe the State of New Mexico and the Feds as well.
Does this line also include the Glorietta Pass as well in this purchase?
Could maybe some one link some information on this. Thanks.
!st, AMTRAK #'s 3 and 4 are now running between Alb. and Raton. BNSF repaired the two washouts. However, based upon Fred Frailey’s column in the latest TRAINS BNSF will send them the bill for all costs associated with this repair.
New Mexico has purchased the line from Lamy south but has "backed out’ of purchasing the remainder between Trinidad and Lamy. Glorieta Pass as well as Raton Pass are still owned by BNSF. They have a “committment’ from Amtrak” to ‘send them the bill’ for all costs associated with maintaining the line between La Junta and Lamy to AMTRAK operation condition. This again per Mr. Frailey’s column.
BNSF says that it will not operate any trains between La Junta and Lamy and therefore the line remains for Amtrak use only.
Isn’t this the route taken by Amtrak’s Southwest Chief and the former Santa Fe Super Chief ? If Amtrak is determined to keep running the Southwest Chief they don’t have much choice of routing.
Yes, they do have a choice. They could run via Amarillo on the line used by the Sante Fe for its frieghts. One train each way won’t be much of a capacity problem, since the frieghts run at high speeds anyway. But the scenery and the ridership aren’t as great.
While Amtrak could reroute the Southwest Chiefs via the “Transcon” it would miss Albuquerque one of its more important stops. A case might be made for rerouting the Southwest Chiefs via the “Transcon” by providing a dedicated connection between Belen and Albuquerque by bus or perhaps by the “Rail Runner.” I agree capacity might not be a problem even though the “Transcon” is busy because Amtrak only runs one train a day each way and the line is largely double track.
I suppose that a couple of obvious side-effects from the elimination of twice-daily SW Chief stops in Albuquerque would be: 1) head end crews would have to be based somewhere else, and 2) the native American jewelry sales persons would no longer have the depot as a (presumably lucrative) sales venue.
Just out of curiosity, yesterday I sent an email message to Amtrak “Contact Us” with a couple of routine questions, but also one in which I (naively) asked about the future SW Chief route in NM. No (within 24 hour) response as yet ! Stay tuned.
No, if the money has been set aside for a specific purpose, it should be spent on that or not spent. Let any “alternate” uses of the money get funding on their own merits.
I seem to recall that BNSF has detoured over this route several times in the last few years because of one reason or another. What would prevent the same in the future?
It appears that BNSF has evaluated its business options in view of the substantially enhanced TRANSCON (double track, CTC and more all done at its own expense) and has decided that the cost of operating over the Raton line during a disruption is not worth investing any more money on that line, either maintainance or capital improvements.
The TRANSCON west from Belen does not have an alternate and they manage very well so it seems like a logical economic decision to treat the line east from Belen in a similar manner.
While I wouldn’t advocate the use of HSR funds to do this, the truth is that the BNSF’s former Santa Fe passenger mainline via Raton Pass is STILL the fastest way between Chicago and L.A. and it’s imperative that it be kept intact.
(the problem is that New Mexico lives by the federal dole and the minute the funds are not there, the state cannot find another revenue source*…the biggest employer in Santa Fe was (and may still be) Uncle Sugar…DC and I have probably walked every foot of that line in our respective ATSF careers. We also know the operating department higher ups were unjustifiably over-paranoid about the line, especially Raton and Glorietta. The line demanded respect and attention, even from the lowest common denominator train crew.
With only 2 qualified crews left, BNSF is not gonna run much that way. If light/fast trains come back into vogue, a la the Q-trains and the old Super-C…the line becomes extremely viable ( John Shedd Reed would have told you as would the ghosts of trainmaster/RFE’s past like Glenn Powers (one of my mentors))
(*) Can’t wait to see what happens when the “new” wears off the Railrunner.