Posted on 12/06/2010 7:47:26 PM PST by CedarDave
Just as state officials grapple with a huge budget shortfall, here comes a multimillion-dollar bill for 200 miles of railroad track the state of New Mexico has no plans to use.
Records show that the state Transportation Commission voted in August to set aside $2 million in next year's budget for capital improvements along the stretch of train track from Lamy to the Colorado border.
That's on top of the $5 million the state promised to pay BNSF Railway Co. to purchase that same stretch of track. State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Megan Arredondo told the Journal that the additional $2 million would pay for major capital and replacement projects on the route — which is now used only by Amtrak since BNSF discontinued freight service on the stretch.
A "definitive" funding source for the $2 million has yet to be identified, she said, adding that no general fund revenue would be used. The state general fund has a projected $400 million shortfall next year.
The agenda for the state Transportation Commission's August meeting said the $2 million would come from the state road fund, which is derived from taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, vehicle registration fees and weight distance taxes paid by truckers.
That fund is used to repair roads and highways and for state transportation projects and operations. [emphasis mine] The road fund has also seen a drop in revenue in recent years.
In addition to capital issues, the state is expecting to pay at least some of the maintenance costs on the 200-mile stretch.
"As part of the contemplated NMDOT agreements with BNSF and Amtrak, NMDOT will need to maintain the railroad to allow safe train operation at current speeds," Arredondo said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
(fancy video)
Richardson? There was another phony baloney....I don’t recall the man ever capable of putting a coherent sentence together....
They must have got the idea from Alaska and its bridge to nowhere.. Richardson is a no good low brow sob, new mexico gets screwed , so what else is new. ;-)
meanwhile,
California is wanting to join in too..
California may build train to nowhere
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2634388/posts
I’m all for High Tech and Sleek trains that connect major regional centers if we could afford them.. however they ought to be built and run by firms here, not by foreign ones, and obviously, financially make sense and large volumes of passengers are a certainty. The Vegas to LA rail project could be such a run... blabbed about for years, who knows , someday.. they could name it the Disney ExPress or something.. Willie Green Way? ;-)
Hopefully, our industrial base is not so decimated that it could not handle the jobs created by keeping work local so to speak.
In the right locations, they can be the perfect meow... or just another a railjob gone wild.
That means every time a tourist hops one of those trains they cost the taxpayers probably $15 to $25.... assuming those trains are even a quarter full. lol.
300 mph passenger train makes no economic sense
I don’t care if it was free. The future is somebody from the Feds will be grabbing my crotch. Papers please.
I found a rail industry analyst with his name frequently quoted. He was probably trying to astroturf for his investment house.
And don’t forget his spitting on his country when he visitedthePueblo onhis nice trip to North Korea.
Yeah, you’re right. I love the 40 mph sightseeing excursion from Chicago to Bloomington, IL. 150 miles AND it takes almost 3 1/2 hrs.
We put a man on the moon....and we have the sorriest rail system on the planet....
If you can develope a 300 mph train, I guess that means you’ve pretty much mastered the ones going half that speed.
40 mph trains....Yeah, you’re right....that makes economic sense....
This country and all the politicians from both sides are a freakin embarrassment....Is there one voice out there? One person....who can stop this madness?
Amtrak runs two opposite direction trains on ONE set of tracks here.
So one train has to pull over onto a siding to let the other one pass.
YAWWWWWWNMMNNNNN
This is the only-north south rail between NY City and Montreal YAWWWNNNNN
It`s been this way since 1870..
YAWWWWNNNNN
Here come those damned chickens again.
That’s because politicians refuse to consider anything but BS political diversity routes, and Amtrak refuses to let any private outfit compete with them.
If you saw some of WG’s other topic posts you would understand his mania better.
and he was nasty, too.
Even at the rediculous fare rate, I question the passenger load of that line. I have driven along side that track and the few trains on it 4 times in the last 12 months. The cars were virtually empty. The line was and is a leftist elitist pipe dream.
No, when the part about how RR’s are a stupid waste of money is when Willie’s no where to be found.
Wait, Tattooine wasn't a bad place. Sure, it was full of liars, thieves, smugglers, knee-cappers, cheats and all-around bad guys, and they had their own space port, but they all served a purpose, which was to do their level best to live outside the clutches of the Empire.
In NM, they do all that while embracing the expansion of the empire.
CougarGA7’s name for the New Mexico Spaceport was Los Isley...although the wretched hive of scum and villainy is up at the roundhouse.
Classic! I'm gonna start using it.
So move there and you can ride it. Personally I would rather keep my bullets.
The one is the One. He will save our economy by putting us to work on his railroad.
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