Southwest Chief Reroute News

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printman2000

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I hope this doesn't happen - my wife and I get off at the Trinidad station when we head to Colorado. The Hertz rental car place is just a few blocks into town so it's no problem getting a car and driving the rest of the way to wherever we're going.
 
What would be the new route, and would it continue to stop in Albuquerque?
The new route would take the train through Witchita, Amarillo, Clovis, and Belen. There has been much talk on these forums in the past on how Albuquerque would be handled. I think most people feel it would still be served, but the train would have to be turned on a wye each time.
 
The new route would take the train through Witchita, Amarillo, Clovis, and Belen. There has been much talk on these forums in the past on how Albuquerque would be handled. I think most people feel it would still be served, but the train would have to be turned on a wye each time.
So it would skip the Santa Fe area? It'd replace the state capitol with a couple small towns.

I don't see the point of that.
 
The new route would take the train through Witchita, Amarillo, Clovis, and Belen. There has been much talk on these forums in the past on how Albuquerque would be handled. I think most people feel it would still be served, but the train would have to be turned on a wye each time.
So it would skip the Santa Fe area? It'd replace the state capitol with a couple small towns.

I don't see the point of that.
Well, first off, it is not a reroute because they want to. It would happen because the tracks between Lamy and Newton are getting worse and worse and BNSF is not going to fix them.

Second, Amarillo and Wichita are not a couple of small towns. Wichita is 382,368 and Amarillo is 190,695. Santa Fe is only 143,937.
 
The new route would take the train through Witchita, Amarillo, Clovis, and Belen. There has been much talk on these forums in the past on how Albuquerque would be handled. I think most people feel it would still be served, but the train would have to be turned on a wye each time.
So it would skip the Santa Fe area? It'd replace the state capitol with a couple small towns.

I don't see the point of that.

First the SWC dose not stop in Santa Fe. It stops in Lamy which has a bus connection to Santa Fe and Albuquerque which has commuter rail to Santa Fe.

Also in terms of population

Santa Fe- 67,947

Wichita- 382,368

Amarillo- 190,695
 
My question on all this is how long would it really take to do a reroute?

The economics of moving the train are pretty clear financially -- the cost of refurbishing the SantaFe tracks are really high, compared to the ridership. And unfortunately, the SWC financial performance isn't in the same league as the Empire Builder or Coast Starlight. (I suspect the economics could be much better, with more capacity and strategic schedule tightening and shifts).

Right now, Wichita is somewhat served by the Newton station, located about 30 miles from Wichita. That station is reasonable - historic, ok parking, a bit frayed around the edges - but the train comes through in the middle of the night. Catching the train at 2:30am really isn't the most attractive option to most travelers. So the shift to get Wichita probably won't drive much higher ridership. If there were some way to improve the time to Wichita it would help ridership considerably, but unclear what impact that might have on equipment turns, utilization, etc.

Politics could be interesting. Several of the western Kansas towns served by the SWC have dumped considerable funds into station rehabs and used the train as a big plug for local development. Raton and the Boy Scout camp would really take a hit - buses vs. train really isn't that great of a change. Then again, Kansas' congressional delegation isn't exactly falling all over their selves to help get more funding for Amtrak, even in the good times.

I do wonder if this move happens, it would happen sooner rather than later - as the original article points out, the train transit time is up 10 hours since 1971, and it'll only get slower as more deferred maintenance piles up on the original route. If Amtrak finds itself under the gun on the budget, it's entirely possible they'll just say to heck with it, reroute, and let the chips fall where they may.
 
It would not be any easy move. Coming up with stations on the new route may be a challenge. If I were running Amtrak, I would be tempted to tell towns if you want us to stop, provide a station.

I would also assume Amarillo would take the place of La Junta as a crew change point. Probably make for a better stop since it is a larger town and a huge BNSF infrastructure.
 
Second, Amarillo and Wichita are not a couple of small towns. Wichita is 382,368 and Amarillo is 190,695. Santa Fe is only 143,937.
I was referring to Clovis, and Belen.
Clovis- in town is about 37,000. Two counties- Curry (Clovis) & Roosevelt (Portales) is about 63,000. The distance between Clovis and Portales is 20 miles.
 
Catching the train at 2:30am really isn't the most attractive option to most travelers. So the shift to get Wichita probably won't drive much higher ridership. If there were some way to improve the time to Wichita it would help ridership considerably, but unclear what impact that might have on equipment turns, utilization, etc.
Has anyone determined about how much faster the Southern Transcon would be versus over Raton?
 
As long as it still goes through Flagstaff I don't mind if they re-route it :)

Although some of the best scenery on the SWC in my opinion is that stretch between the Kansas/Colorado border and Albuquerque.
 
Catching the train at 2:30am really isn't the most attractive option to most travelers. So the shift to get Wichita probably won't drive much higher ridership. If there were some way to improve the time to Wichita it would help ridership considerably, but unclear what impact that might have on equipment turns, utilization, etc.
Has anyone determined about how much faster the Southern Transcon would be versus over Raton?
Looking at old timetables: the train should be able to match the pre-30 minute slowdown schedule of a couple of years ago. Bypassing Topeka and Albuquerque could potentially yield a 38 hour Chicago to LA schedule which is faster than theold Santa Fe Super Chief. Makes a one night out westbound schedule possible, but with no connections in Chicago.

LWBaxter
 
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