Railroad Forums
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)Governor: State scrapping deal to buy BNSF track
New Mexico’s railroad to nowhere is no more.
Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration has reached an agreement for the BNSF Railway Co. to pull the plug on a never-completed purchase of about 180 miles of track, and the company will refund $5 million fronted by the state for the line by her predecessor.
The governor made the announcement early Saturday after the Legislature approved a proposal offering a tax break to BNSF on locomotive fuel if the company makes investments to upgrade its rail infrastructure. The measure will extend similar tax treatment that previously was granted to the Union Pacific Corp.
The administration doesn’t want the track from Lamy, a small community near Santa Fe, to the Colorado border. The state estimated it would need to spend $8 million a year just for maintenance and routine improvements of the track.
Former Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration had paid BNSF about $5 million in 2008 for the rail line as part of a larger deal to obtain track to start the Rail Runner Express commuter service between Santa Fe and Belen.
Gilbert B Norman wrote:Today New Mexico, Tomorrow the World!
Brief passage:Governor Bill Richardson, during the July 17 dedication ceremony of the New Mexico Rail Runner Express commuter service, said that train service from El Paso, Texas to Denver, Colorado is a vision that "will happen."New Mexico Business Weekly
Richardson did not attach any timeline to the prospect nor talk about where funding would come from for such a lofty project. The current goal on the state's agenda is to expand service from Belen to Santa Fe by 2008.
Reader View: Decision to give up rail line has consequences
...Recently, the state chose to dissolve the agreement between the Burlington Northern and the state of New Mexico for the north-south scenic rail alignment, a stretch of rail line from Lamy to the Colorado border. Yes, millions of dollars will be returned to state coffers and used for needed road and related highway projects. However, the state may be foreclosing on a rare option and opportunity.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, successor to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co., which originally built the line in 1878, is responsible to its stockholders and therefore obligated not only to stay profitable, but to divest itself of unprofitable holdings, such as the line running through Lamy, Las Vegas, Raton and north to Trinidad and Denver. The line has had negligible traffic and been maintained to minimal track standards for several years. Because of that sustained deferred maintenance, Amtrak is now looking at alternative routes through the state, possibly west, from Clovis, to offer improved safety for its passengers.
The railroad, once in repossession of the alignment, will be free to petition the federal Surface Transportation Board for permission to abandon the line, terminating all service on it and selling the rails and ties to the lowest bidder. The property under the rail, or right-of-way, would go back to the hundreds of adjacent Mora, San Miguel, Santa Fe and Colfax County landowners, thus making it impossible to reassemble at any future time for any future purpose.
...
Perhaps the line might have been rail-banked. Then, the state would have retained the option to preserve the contiguous alignment for future generations and retained an alternative transportation option for a growing and an aging Southwestern population.
Jeff Smith wrote:Further elaboration from someone in the industry from the government side: SantaFeNewMexicon.comNew Mexico could make a trail (hiking or biking) out of the old SF rail corridor without buying it. With relatively low grades, it would make a great trail.
I found the article/letter/op-ed very well-written, dispassionate, etc.
Reader View: Decision to give up rail line has consequences
...Recently, the state chose to dissolve the agreement between the Burlington Northern and the state of New Mexico for the north-south scenic rail alignment, a stretch of rail line from Lamy to the Colorado border. Yes, millions of dollars will be returned to state coffers and used for needed road and related highway projects. However, the state may be foreclosing on a rare option and opportunity.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, successor to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co., which originally built the line in 1878, is responsible to its stockholders and therefore obligated not only to stay profitable, but to divest itself of unprofitable holdings, such as the line running through Lamy, Las Vegas, Raton and north to Trinidad and Denver. The line has had negligible traffic and been maintained to minimal track standards for several years. Because of that sustained deferred maintenance, Amtrak is now looking at alternative routes through the state, possibly west, from Clovis, to offer improved safety for its passengers.
The railroad, once in repossession of the alignment, will be free to petition the federal Surface Transportation Board for permission to abandon the line, terminating all service on it and selling the rails and ties to the lowest bidder. The property under the rail, or right-of-way, would go back to the hundreds of adjacent Mora, San Miguel, Santa Fe and Colfax County landowners, thus making it impossible to reassemble at any future time for any future purpose.
...
Perhaps the line might have been rail-banked. Then, the state would have retained the option to preserve the contiguous alignment for future generations and retained an alternative transportation option for a growing and an aging Southwestern population.
