battalion51
Engineer
The following is a quote from the Trains.com news wire:
This is not good news, I don't know what traffic was like at the Raton station, but it's never good to hear of stations going unstaffed.Amtrak removes staff at New Mexico station
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Effective at the close of business today, the Raton, New Mexico, station will no longer be staffed, eliminating on-site ticketing, baggage, and express services. Raton employed an agent Monday through Friday and a relief agent on weekends.
Raton, 230 miles northeast of Albuquerque and just south of the Colorado border, is on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and serves Amtrak trains 3 and 4, the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief, westbound in the morning and eastbound in late afternoon. The trains will still stop at Raton, and a guaranteed bus connection at Raton to and from Denver, Colo. will remain.
The route is the original Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe transcontinental main line, relegated to mostly passenger service with some freight service after the Belen Cutoff via Amarillo, Texas, was put in service in the early 1900’s.