'Surplus' Claim Takes Sanity Off the Rails (NM-Richardson's Railroad)

Only in government can you run almost entirely on taxpayer money, get not one but two emergency infusions, spend all but $250,000-or-so of your handouts, and have the audacity to claim you have a surplus.

If that's the track of reasoning the New Mexico Rail Runner really wants to travel, then officials owe New Mexico consumers a refund.

Yes, the commuter train's revenues outpaced expenditures by $254,481 for fiscal 2010 ($22,261,918 vs. $22,007,437).

A big chunk — $11.95 million — came from a regional sales tax for mass transit. The rest came from a variety of sources, most also taxpayer funded — including the feds, the state, the soon-to-be-empty coal-car that is the stimulus —as well as the private and tax-supported railroads for use of the tracks.

... claiming a surplus when officials simply failed to burn through all their taxpayer cash? That takes sanity off the rails.

Total length is 100 miles. Price to ride roundtrip is less than the cost of a super-sized Big Mac.

Wouldn't it just make more sense to add a lane or two in each direction on I-25?

Ahh, here's the rub. The stretch of highway between ABQ and Bernalillo was part of the original interstate -- two lanes each direction, narrow median and shoulders. It was to be widened because the bedroom community of Rio Rancho was built across the river from Bernalillo. The section north of Bernalillo was completed in the late 1970's, early 1980's and is constructed to more modern standards. The Environmental Assessment used to promote construction of the the RR admits that the capacity of this stretch of highway will not be reached until after 2020. So the ABQ-Bernalillo section was scheduled for reconstruction early to mid-decade.

Richardson comes upon the scene in 2003 and institutes a program called GRIP (Governor Richardson's Investiment Partnership). He takes about $400 million in highway funds from highway reconstruction and uses it to build and complete the Rail Runner (the legislature had already approved what could be called seed money for purchase of the existing BNSF railroad between Belen and Lamy). Richardson eschewed applying for federal transit funds for two reasons -- the "official" reason given is that it would take too long to apply and receive them. (Richardson was looking to have his railroad in operation or nearly complete in time to enhance his environmental resume for his presidential run in 2008.) A more telling reason, unstated by the administration, is that the application would be subject to a federal cost-benefit analysis, which they knew they could not survive. So the money used to build it did not come from federal transit money but from highway funds.

So while the RR was being build, congestion increased on the old section I-25 and reconstruction did not begin until fall of 2009 and is still ongoing. Reconstruction of the I-25/US 550 interchange (exit to north Rio Rancho) is still in the design phase and it will be another couple of years before it is completed. In the meantime, adjacent to the highway interchange is the Sandoval commuter rail station, whose parking lot could have been accessed as well by express bus (as it was prior to 2008) as by a new half-billion dollar RR.

It remains to be seen how the new Martinez administration will handle the RR. Assistance from federal operating funds expire June 30. I suspect they will demand that fares be raised to offset the difference between the county tax-payer subsidies and actual operational costs. No more state fancy accounting tricks to make up the difference.

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