The New Mexico Railrunner is meant to be a commuter rail line from Albuquerque, to the state capitol city of Santa Fe, sixty miles to the North. They don't bother to run the train on Sundays, so tourists are out of luck if they want to go home on a Sunday. Van service may readily be arranged from your hotel a day in advance, however, for about $25 one way. The Railrunner is $6 for a day pass. I presume they charge another dollar for the airport shuttle. When I took the 11:30 train from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, I brought my gps to get an accurate reading on speed.
The train which was a consist of a locomotive and four cars including a CMU, was full both ways, as the free rail travel was still available to Santa Fe residents with ID. The train reached very briefly a maximum speed of 83 mph, but it was clear that the engineer strived to maintain a speed in the high seventies. The train descended 2,000 feet from the 6900 foot state capitol to downtown
Albuquerque, 2000 feet over the course of the trip, and pulled into the downtown new Alvarado transit station, three minutes early at 1:00 p.m. Alvarado is named after the Fred Harvey era Alvarado Hotel, which was torn down in 1970. Much like Penn Station in NYC, the Duke City residents never got over the demolition of the old Alvarado. The new station is tastefully designed to resemble the old station.
The Alvarado station is an exceptionally well sorted transportation hub. Its quite easy to step onto a bus that will take you almost anywhere you want to go in the city, including the airport, 3 air miles away, per my gps. The terminal is shared with Amtrak and Greyhound. A free downtown shuttle is also offered. The connection to the airport is evidently very solid, and the Railrunner has already established a firm niche as the preferred way to get to the airport. I highly recommend that tourists schedule their flights to use the Railrunner. I elected to take the Rapid Ride express bus to the University neighborhood which is east on Central avenue. By 1:15, I was seated at a restaurant. The connection was that good. Around the Alvarado station are all the amenities of downtown, with a neighborhood that is half-way chi-chi and halfway threatening, not unlike a funky beach neighborhood. For Californians, think Ocean Beach, in San Diego. For out of state tourists with limited time or who are in a hurry to get to Santa Fe, I recommend the Atomic museum in Old Town, which should really be called the Atomic Bomb museum.
The Railrunner line would show the inquisitive traveler more about my poor state than a week in Santa Fe.
The traveler leaving from Alvarado heading north on the 4:15, would look out the right side and see the highly underrated Sandia mountains to the east of Albuquerque, a really impressive and exquisite mountain, particularly in the late afternoon sunlight. But the view would quickly give way to trailer parks and shack-like houses, and backyards with junked cars, a lot of them. Reminding us that for all its beauty, this is a state of great privation. The view then changes to horses along the bosque of the Rio Grande. Nice horses, too. Affluence and horse country. Then once again, the view turns to the Indian Pueblos, Santa Ana, San Felipe and Santo Domingo. With Santa Ana seeming to be the least traditional, and San Felipe and Santo Domingo more so. Here there is also poverty, but the the scene is mixed with hornos (outdoor adobe bread ovens) and ancient mission churches. The Pueblos are as poverty stricken as the trailer parks further south, but the Pueblos have their history, their attachment to the land and their families, and it shows from the train. Its hard for me to accept that our government would steal from the trust accounts from such impoverished people, but its true.
Descansos, the New Mexican tradition of building religious shrines at the site of the accidental death of a loved one can be seen, too often at the railroad crossings. Another passenger told me that he saw sandhill cranes here, but I didn't see them. Further up the line, I see a long abandoned strip shopping center, that was built decades ago. It has a faded but garish sign that reads: "see real Indians" There is no paved road in front of the building. In fact, its nowhere near a road. I surmise that it was a tourist trap on Route 66 before they routed it away from Santa Fe in 1937. The train pulls smartly up the La Bajada hill, really an escarfment, at 60 MPH. We wait for a few minutes on a siding for the Southbound train, and pull into town, with the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo mountains in the far distant north, and the Jemez mountains to our left.
This is the best possible way for a tourist to get a warts and all view of New Mexico, and the cheapest and best way to get to Santa Fe from the airport. The typical tourist might consider taking the train to Santa Fe in the afternoon, and then getting a rent-a-car to the hotel (try Enterprise) the next morning in Santa Fe, saving a days' rental on the car. A particularly unambitious tourist might forego a rental car and spend a pleasant weekend strolling around Santa Fe, with an undignified van ride back to Albuquerque on Sunday. The schedule of the Railrunner is a little thin, so consult the train schedule before making airplane reservations.
From a transportation standpoint, the striking thing about the new line is that it is so marginal compared to other potential rail projects, and yet so wildly successful. We have a lot of rail to lay in this country.
The train which was a consist of a locomotive and four cars including a CMU, was full both ways, as the free rail travel was still available to Santa Fe residents with ID. The train reached very briefly a maximum speed of 83 mph, but it was clear that the engineer strived to maintain a speed in the high seventies. The train descended 2,000 feet from the 6900 foot state capitol to downtown
Albuquerque, 2000 feet over the course of the trip, and pulled into the downtown new Alvarado transit station, three minutes early at 1:00 p.m. Alvarado is named after the Fred Harvey era Alvarado Hotel, which was torn down in 1970. Much like Penn Station in NYC, the Duke City residents never got over the demolition of the old Alvarado. The new station is tastefully designed to resemble the old station.
The Alvarado station is an exceptionally well sorted transportation hub. Its quite easy to step onto a bus that will take you almost anywhere you want to go in the city, including the airport, 3 air miles away, per my gps. The terminal is shared with Amtrak and Greyhound. A free downtown shuttle is also offered. The connection to the airport is evidently very solid, and the Railrunner has already established a firm niche as the preferred way to get to the airport. I highly recommend that tourists schedule their flights to use the Railrunner. I elected to take the Rapid Ride express bus to the University neighborhood which is east on Central avenue. By 1:15, I was seated at a restaurant. The connection was that good. Around the Alvarado station are all the amenities of downtown, with a neighborhood that is half-way chi-chi and halfway threatening, not unlike a funky beach neighborhood. For Californians, think Ocean Beach, in San Diego. For out of state tourists with limited time or who are in a hurry to get to Santa Fe, I recommend the Atomic museum in Old Town, which should really be called the Atomic Bomb museum.
The Railrunner line would show the inquisitive traveler more about my poor state than a week in Santa Fe.
The traveler leaving from Alvarado heading north on the 4:15, would look out the right side and see the highly underrated Sandia mountains to the east of Albuquerque, a really impressive and exquisite mountain, particularly in the late afternoon sunlight. But the view would quickly give way to trailer parks and shack-like houses, and backyards with junked cars, a lot of them. Reminding us that for all its beauty, this is a state of great privation. The view then changes to horses along the bosque of the Rio Grande. Nice horses, too. Affluence and horse country. Then once again, the view turns to the Indian Pueblos, Santa Ana, San Felipe and Santo Domingo. With Santa Ana seeming to be the least traditional, and San Felipe and Santo Domingo more so. Here there is also poverty, but the the scene is mixed with hornos (outdoor adobe bread ovens) and ancient mission churches. The Pueblos are as poverty stricken as the trailer parks further south, but the Pueblos have their history, their attachment to the land and their families, and it shows from the train. Its hard for me to accept that our government would steal from the trust accounts from such impoverished people, but its true.
Descansos, the New Mexican tradition of building religious shrines at the site of the accidental death of a loved one can be seen, too often at the railroad crossings. Another passenger told me that he saw sandhill cranes here, but I didn't see them. Further up the line, I see a long abandoned strip shopping center, that was built decades ago. It has a faded but garish sign that reads: "see real Indians" There is no paved road in front of the building. In fact, its nowhere near a road. I surmise that it was a tourist trap on Route 66 before they routed it away from Santa Fe in 1937. The train pulls smartly up the La Bajada hill, really an escarfment, at 60 MPH. We wait for a few minutes on a siding for the Southbound train, and pull into town, with the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo mountains in the far distant north, and the Jemez mountains to our left.
This is the best possible way for a tourist to get a warts and all view of New Mexico, and the cheapest and best way to get to Santa Fe from the airport. The typical tourist might consider taking the train to Santa Fe in the afternoon, and then getting a rent-a-car to the hotel (try Enterprise) the next morning in Santa Fe, saving a days' rental on the car. A particularly unambitious tourist might forego a rental car and spend a pleasant weekend strolling around Santa Fe, with an undignified van ride back to Albuquerque on Sunday. The schedule of the Railrunner is a little thin, so consult the train schedule before making airplane reservations.
From a transportation standpoint, the striking thing about the new line is that it is so marginal compared to other potential rail projects, and yet so wildly successful. We have a lot of rail to lay in this country.
