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Posted on 06/15/2011 12:33:30 PM PDT by CedarDave
The Rail Runner Express is considering curtailing weekday train service to save money.
Changes could force early birds to take a bus instead of a train between metropolitan Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and eliminate some stops at the year-old Kewa Pueblo station, if one proposal is adopted.
The loss of $1.2 million in federal funding prompted the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which operates the Rail Runner for the state of New Mexico, to rethink the passenger train schedule, spokesman Jay Faught said.
Among the proposals, he said, are to use bus service to replace the earliest northbound and southbound trains on weekdays. That proposed change would affect mostly commuters headed to Los Alamos, who comprise the majority of riders on the earliest trains. The bus would make stops at Los Ranchos, Sandoval County at U.S. 550 and Santa Fe County at N.M. 599 before continuing north to Los Alamos, Faught said.
(Excerpt) Read more at santafenewmexican.com ...
And, BTW, fares are so low that you can ride the 200 miles round trip all day for $9 and ride ABQ-SF for the price of a super-sized Big Mac (cheaper fares online!). But no mention in the RR proposal to increase absurdly low fares to $10 or even $12.
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Little known fact:
When the RR was built, the passing sidings were named for bigwigs in the Richardson administration including big Bill himself and Faught (Rhonda, not Jay). Big Bill also had the Coors Road/I-40 interchange in ABQ named for himself.
“There ought to be a law” against naming things after living politicians. And if the law is broken, the penalty cannot include de-naming :)
Well, so much for the rail mantra: “If we build it they will come” . . .
Or is that from Field of Dreams? Same thing . . .
If he ever gets prison time, perhaps he'll really get a chance to pull a train.
Last night, I was listening to the local Artesia radio station, they were discussing this. The overwhelming opinion was sell everything, might get twenty million for everything.
Keep your ears open — there are discussions on other forums that Amtrak may have caused the 25,000+ acre Track fire in Raton. The westbound train made a station stop in Raton at 10:56 a.m. Sunday and the estimated time of the fire starting along the track about 1 mile north of town is 11:00 a.m.
There is a long, steep, curving downgrade there so imagine sparks from wheels or brakes hitting the ground. Also, an illegal smoker may have been near one of the closed exit doors and opened it to throw the butt out before the conductor came to open it for the Raton station stop. BNSF still owns the line so Amtrak and maybe BNSF will end up paying for damages if it can be shown they were responsible.
That’s cheap enough where a guy selling Iguana meat could make a profit if he bought on-line tickets!
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