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An excellent article, though a long read, that goes into detail on the actual costs of Richardson's railroad. I have some additional comments that I'll post below.

Carraro said it wouldn't be fair to spread RailRunner's cost across the state; people outside the Middle Rio Grande Valley will rarely, if ever, ride the train.

"The first thing you have to look at is how is our transportation system right now working?

"Have you seen the buses that go from Rio Rancho and go through Paradise Hills and go Downtown? I see them everyday and there's one person inside the bus -- that's the guy driving it ... Nobody rides the buses, so the buses should be a good indication of what happens with the train. Pretty soon, not only are you going to increase the expense of the train, but you're also going to the expenses of having a bus system. You've got to have (a bus system) if you're going to make the train work.

"This system comes about and it's not going to cost a couple-hundred million dollars, it's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not $1 billion, for this train and system around it to make it work," he concluded.

He has hit the nail on the head. This fiasco will be around long after Richardson has gone on to become Hillary's running mate, leaving the taxpayers of the state to pick up the pieces.

I posted the following comments on the article at this blog (http://www.marioburgos.com/) earlier today:

Good article by Joe Carraro. What is overlooked by everyone, including him, is that once past Santa Domingo pueblo there is no current fast way to get to Santa Fe by rail. The RR passes under I-25 at the base of La Bajada hill and turns east to Cerrillos, Galisteo and Lamy. That part of the line is still relatively fast (50-55 mph). At Lamy, the line branches to Santa Fe and winds through the subdivisions east of Santa Fe.

As a rail fan who used to live in Santa Fe, I have both ridden and "chased" trains throughout the area. The Lamy-Santa Fe portion of the line is 15 mph. I rode the last Santa Fe train out of there back in the 1990's and the line is now the Santa Fe Southern and gives tourist rides to Lamy. Yeah, you can travel it, but I expect a one-way ride from Belen would consume half a day and get you to Santa Fe just about in time for lunch.

The only viable way to run a train to Santa Fe is to build a new right of way that somehow goes up La Bajada hill (difficult given the steep grade required; even today's cars shift down in gear) and then to go through the SF subdivisions -- NIMBY's will come out of the fake pueblo style woodwork if that is proposed!

The only possible, realistic solution I forsee that could work, is to have the train terminate at La Bajada, which already has a spur and siding, and transfer passengers on shuttle buses to Santa Fe. But if you do that, why have a train at all?

It's obvious that this project is just part of Richardson's plan to groom himself for national office. It makes no sense economically given the captial costs to get a new line to Santa Fe and operational costs will rapidly eclipse the cost of building additional lanes on I-25.

75 mph on I-25 beats 15 mph by train everytime.

Dave | 01.13.06 - 10:40 am | #

"What people don't understand is that surplus was needed to pay for a lot of other programs ... We've got major problems in this state."

What people don't understand is that ^#%! politicians will always find new problems that require more spending.

It looks like they are trying to copy the Trinity Railway Express in Dallas. About the same length (40 some miles), and the equipment looks like most what the TRE is using for most of its train sets. Of course, the TRE is serving a metro area with about 4 million folks. And the TRE owns the rail lines and makes some money allowing off hours freight service.