I guess anyone can believe whatever they choose to, and also keep repeating it as many times as they want. That does not mean that the people who actually operate the railroad and are responsible for it will necessarily agree.
I was merely sharing what folks who actually dispatch that railroad told me. but what would they know?
JIS,
Well, I guess I have to add that if your hunch (and your source) is correct and there is no chance that BNSF would make more use of the Raton line if it were rebuilt, then I guess I have to begin questioning the wisdom of rebuilding it at all. I mean, as a rail advocate I’d really
HATE to lose it but what if, just what if, Anderson might turn out to have a point here?
I thought Anderson threw a number out like $300 million to really get this line up to snuff. (I don’t have his statement in front of me.) He may be right that it is simply not worth that much money for a single daily passenger train. That money could perhaps be put to better use somewhere else. How ‘bout 100+ new “Superliners”?
You know, his whole idea of a “bus bridge” might turn out to be a worthy concept *
IF* it just got tweaked a bit. If only BNSF would go along and allow Amtrak to move the
Chief to the south line through Amarillo, then an Amtrak “Throughway Bus” could serve those stops that get missed. Plus, a rather large city (Amarillo) would get a daily passenger train.
But here is a truly radical idea
: What if the
Chief were to stay on the current North Line as far west as Trinidad then head south over BNSF’s former Ft. Worth & Denver line until it hits the south line where it would then turn west again. Then only the towns of Raton, Las Vegas and Lamy would be missed. Again, a “Throughway” bus could serve those towns and perhaps even stop in downtown Santa Fe. This might actually be an improvement.
I realize that the routing would be just a bit circuitous but perhaps not more so than the
California Zephyr’s Denver – Ogden routing across Wyoming before it got moved to the D&RGW route. Also, stations in Trinidad and Albuquerque would need to be relocated in order to prevent a couple of awkward back-up moves but that’s no big deal. The “depot” in Trinidad is nothing but a concrete platform anyways. The depot in Albuquerque could be relocated to the main transcon in the same way that the main stop for Phoenix was moved to the outpost at Maricopa. But would BNSF buy this idea? Maybe they would if the "pot got sweetened".
I dunno. Just an idea that’s all.
Regards,
FMC