NM Amtrak riders fear end of service

Southwest Chief at Raton Pass

From KRQE-TV.com - SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Twice a day, Amtrak's Southwest Chief pulls into the sleepy railroad depot in Lamy, N.M. The rest of the day, the station, part of the transportation network that links Northern New Mexico to the rest of the country, is deserted.Train advocate Ford Robbins has been following the saga of the Southwest Chief for years. He's the kind of guy who gets Trains magazine delivered to his house. He rides trains wherever he travels, if at all possible, often renting a car at the other end for the final leg of his journey. His daughter and two of his grandchildren visited last week from Illinois, and, of course, rode Amtrak both ways. Now insiders are suggesting passengers like Robbins and his family might eventually have to use other transportation. Some fear rail service on the Southwest Chief is in jeopardy, all the way from Raton to Albuquerque, partly because of questions about whether the state government can get out of an agreement to buy 200 miles of the railroad line. Last year, the Colorado Rail Passenger Association issued a news release making dire predictions about the survival of the route. Jim Souby, association president, said local governments in the other two states have now pulled together $100,000 for lobbying and advocacy. Now he's hoping that more New Mexico communities will get on board. Getting the federal government to sufficiently fund Amtrak the business it established in 1971 still appears to be an uphill battle, he said. Some of the New Mexico congressional delegation are advocating for increased Amtrak funding. Democratic Sen. Tom Udall is among dozens of federal lawmakers who sent a letter last week to congressional leaders calling for greater support of Amtrak investments, not just for operations but for capital expenditures required for the current route of the Chief..Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Luján has also voted against efforts in the past to cut funding for Amtrak and supports putting enough money into the program to provide vital service to New Mexico, his spokesman said.Currently, federal spending on trains is dwarfed by what the government spends on other modes of transportation. In the last federal fiscal year, about $43 billion went to highways and $16 billion went to airports, compared to $4.3 billion allocated for railroads ($1.6 billion of which went to Amtrak). Since a major transportation bill expired in 2008, Congress has been passing extensions rather than establishing new policies. In March, the U.S. Senate approved a new transportation bill that includes some provisions to keep railroad funding in place. Consideration of the plan by the House hasn't moved very far, and on Thursday, officials agreed to another 90-day extension of the old funding plan. Read more

NM Amtrak riders fear end of service