Wake NMDOT Up to Paseo Drive-Time Woes (Richardson's Railroad)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | May 30, 2007 | Journal editorial staff

[CedarDave]

Two years ago, the Paseo del Norte/Interstate 25/Jefferson corridor was a enough of a bad dream that the feds ponied up $20 million toward designing a fix.

Two years later, negotiating the route has become a nightmare. Around 100,000 vehicles go through Paseo/I-25 daily. And two years later, there's still just $20 million in the Paseo-fix kitty— although rebuilding the interchange will run at least $200 million more than that. And two years later, there's still no definitive plan to rebuild the intersections, no environmental assessment, no right-of-way preservation, no timeline for construction.

Maybe the New Mexico Department of Transportation's bigwigs should schedule a field trip from their Santa Fe offices and see firsthand what their I-25/Paseo-based District 3 office deals with twice every weekday.

Mayor Martin Chávez has; it's "the single greatest need the city has in terms of traffic infrastructure right now." He proposes helping fund $1 million in interim fixes...

~~ snip ~~

... The delay may go from sitting there for five minutes to sitting there for four minutes and 15 seconds."

And that's 45 seconds saved today. How many seconds will be saved in two years, when the rebuild could be completed if there was funding? Or in seven, if it's phased in while NMDOT has car washes and bake sales to come up with the cash?

Our governor talks a lot about how he's making New Mexico a "clean" state. If he's serious, those 100,000 vehicles idling every day should put the Paseo/I-25/Jefferson corridor on NMDOT's front burner, right next to the $400-million Rail Runner, whose ridership equals about one or two percent of the interchange's daily load.

And Albuquerque's goodwill gesture for an interim fix— born in the desperation of its drivers— shouldn't be used as an excuse to keep the heat off.

[CedarDave]

This intersection is another problem that the state DOT has ignored, along with that of I-25 from Tramway to Bernalillo. It's as if they ignore these completely while devoting lots of time and money to the feel-good Rail Runner which goes up and down the parallel track a couple of times per day with a few hundred passengers paying about 10% of the cost of running the operation. And, of course, the RR to Santa Fe is going to cost the NM taxpayers even more as it is becoming clear that Federal funding will not be forthcoming. The NM bureaucrats complain that they can not wait for it to be provided (after all the election is coming ever closer), but the fine print shows that for the funding to be provided, the applicant must show the project is cost effective. And Richardson's railroad to Santa Fe can in no way meet that criterion.

[Rogle]

Oh yea of little faith CedarDave the Railrunner will be our salvation...ya right. But you and I will foot the bill for the Railrunner so the riders of the Railrunner get state subsidized travel at a rate of 98% to 96%.

[CedarDave]

Correcting your post:

But you and I will foot the bill for the Railrunner so the few riders of the Railrunner get state subsidized travel at a rate of 98% to 96%.

[Rogle]

so true so true