Posted on 12/06/2010 7:47:26 PM PST by CedarDave
Bottom line is that Richardson wanted only the portion of track from Belen to Lamy for the Rail Runner. However, BNSF would not lease the line or sell just a portion and so the state caved and bought the whole route. Now, in addition to BNSF having routed all freight traffic to the main Belen-Clovis-Amarillo transcon, Amtrak is likely to route its once daily train to that route also as it does not want to pick up the costs of maintenance. It has already been forced to reduce track speed in Kansas to a leisurely 40 mph due to poor track (speed on the transcon is 79 mph).
NM list PING!
(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list. For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after watching a short video commercial.)
That’s a Willie Green fantasy for sure!
There was a guy on FR who swore that passenger rail was the wave of the furture and was a boon to any economy that had them...
How about they put a big toll booth on nthat railroad and let the AMTRAK riders pay for it???
Willie is saddened.
furture = future.
furture = furniture.
The operable word is "was." JimRob didn't ban him but told him to shut up about passenger rail or he would be zotted. His account still shows active.
Libertarian ping
As a former NM resident, I have come to the conclusion that if the USA was the Galactic Republic, New Mexico would be Tattoine.
Richardson must be planning to run for something. Like Obama, he needs a slush fund; the $2,000,000 of other people’s money is that slush fund.
Didn’t Atlas Shrugged have something like that?
No passenger rail thread is complete without that clip!
Hahhahaaaaaa. Chinese have a 300 mph bullet train... we have nothing more than sightseeing Amtrak routes that rarely run on time....
Pathetic.
Republicans, democrats, Indys. You’re all full of crap when it comes to this country....
Already there’s compromise in the wind..
Random thought of the day...
Hey Lamy!? I've got a couple of their pens. Nice designs, good feel/heft, and they write very smoothly. Of course, Lamy writing instruments is a German owned company... ;-)
The state is missing a lot of revenue by keeping round trip fares at rock bottom prices. The ABQ to Santa Fe senior fare is $3 one-way; a round trip fare for a senior is $5 if purchased online ($7 and $8 otherwise).
Consider that if you go to Santa Fe and have a meal at just about any restaurant is will cost you $15-20 minimum, more with a drink. The ABQ/SF route is very popular with tourists so they could double or even triple the fare and it would still get lots of patronage. The Martinez administration needs to look very seriously at fare increases if it intends to keep the RR running.
Richardson’s RailRunner — a bad idea whose time never was — once again zaps it to the good folks of New Mexico.
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