Albuquerque New Mexico Rail Runner Railrunner

Santa Fe extention openned today. does anyone have any pics or stories? i think the ridership is above 9,000 now.

found a animated video of the rail extention ... at nmdot website ... http://nmgrip.com/projects.asp?project=15436

The official site - http://nmrailrunner.com - was updated for the new service, and I found some local-news articles on it with Google News. Articles like

Rail Runner makes inaugural trip to Santa Fe
Rail Runner Express kicks off its public schedule today
Signal causes 3 Rail Runner trains to be late
Rail Runner looks to boost ridership
New bus route connects Rail Runner to airport

Rockingham Racer wrote: I headed north to Santa Fe, and was surprised to see very little in the way of towns between Bernanillo and Santa Fe.

Everything between Bernalillo and Santa Fe is indian pueblo, so no, you won't see any development there, probably ever. But almost all of the people who travel I25 between the two cities are state employees who work in Santa Fe and live in Rio Rancho, since Santa Fe is so astronomically expensive. That's why the holy grail of RailRunner was to get to Santa Fe. There's a huge volume of people who drive past the railroad on their way to get to I25. Since service started, you can't even find a place to pull off onto the shoulder by Journal Center station if you need to park. We'll see in another month or so what kind of regular patronage develops.

Still absolutely no parking available at Journal Center station even now that fares are being charged to Santa Fe. Zia station in Santa Fe is almost ready to open.

I want to know what agreement Santa Fe Southern retains for operating over the line since the state co-opted its right-of-way from I25 to the end. SFS still has its equipment at the end of the line, but I'd like to know when the excursion train is allowed to run over the NMRX mainline.

SlowFreight wrote:I want to know what agreement Santa Fe Southern retains for operating over the line since the state co-opted its right-of-way from I25 to the end. SFS still has its equipment at the end of the line, but I'd like to know when the excursion train is allowed to run over the NMRX mainline.

That's a very good question. I believe they were guaranteed that they could retain the "existing frequency of service" -- both freight and excursion -- but I don't know what that frequency was. I think there was some allowance for increase in freight service but none for increase in excursion service.

I visited New Mexico this weekend. I was surprised to discover that there is no Sunday service on the Railrunner. Checking in here after the fact, I now understand that the extension to Santa Fe only happened a couple months ago, so it makes sense that they haven't got 7 day/week service just yet.

But Santa Fe/Taos is a pretty huge tourist destination, with no real airline service. I'm wondering if there is any intention to expand the schedule to make it an option for tourists. I think even one round-trip on Sunday would make it an option for a lot of people. We certainly would have used the train if there had been a return trip available yesterday. Even one late afternoon Sunday trip from Santa Fe would probably attract a fair number of skiers, and folks like us who went for hiking, seeing Santa Fe, and some visits to pueblos.

We loved our trip, by the way.

The Zia Road station is now finished and awaiting a parking lot, and construction has begun on the NM 599/I25 station. The 599 stop is in the middle of the interchange practically, and Kiewit is reconfiguring two of the ramps. I'm curious how this station will work out when finished.

ne plus ultra, the Santa Fe ski area is so far from Santa Fe proper that it wouldn't be a very large market even with a bus connection, since most folks out here lump their own skis and boots.
I'm not sure that MRCOG has much intent on starting weekend service at this time since the holy grail was always seen as the Rio Rancho-Santa Fe commute market.

Meanwhile, the local paper had an article on Rail Runner's prohibition on taking photographs from the train while crossing the indian pueblos. Seems a lot of foks find that an unrealistic ban, and others wondered why Rail Runner even tries when Amtrak won't enact a similar ban. This is the first time I've heard of people being prohibited from taking pictures while inside the train! Usually folks just try to stick it to us about photographing trackside.

SlowFreight wrote: ne plus ultra, the Santa Fe ski area is so far from Santa Fe proper that it wouldn't be a very large market even with a bus connection, since most folks out here lump their own skis and boots.
I'm not sure that MRCOG has much intent on starting weekend service at this time since the holy grail was always seen as the Rio Rancho-Santa Fe commute market.

Well, our B&B had a couple who were acclimating to altitude in Santa Fe before skiing at Taos. The fact that the ski areas are another 70 minutes away doesn't mean people wouldn't use it to get to Santa Fe and head into the mountains a day or two later, by rental car or bus. And they certainly offer ski rental there. From the way you've written, I think you're focusing on New Mexicans, but I was more thinking of tourists like myself flying into Albuquerque who would otherwise need to rent a car immediately. Even if you rode to Santa Fe, then rented there the next morning or afternoon, you'd have saved a fair amount.

And second, I searched around a bit and found a quote from the director saying they weren't planning to at this time (which I wasn't surprised by) but that that might change in 3 months.

Three months? Everything else made it like they simply had no intention of even considering Sunday service, and then I read that.

They've already added 5 Saturdays that weren't even planned in November, and then an extra train when they realized how many people were traveling. It makes no sense to have 6 Saturday trains to a vacation destination and no Sunday trains. It doesn't even really make sense to have 6 Saturday trains anywhere and not have Sunday trains. Consider Metra schedules, which are reduced on Sundays, but certainly not eliminated.

You could be right, but my guess is there'll be a year-round Sunday train by 2010.

The line basically follows the highway the whole way from south of Albequerque to Santa Fe, right?

http://www.nmrailrunner.com/route_map.asp

You're basically correct. When driving I25, though, there's lots of places where you can't really see the track.

Where is it that the tracks go right down the center of the highway? And if I stay in Santa Fe, do the engines ever layover there or do I have to wait for a train to come in?

Going southward, the tracks cross under the southbound lanes of I25 just past the ramp for US285. The tracks then cross back under the northbound lanes at I25 MP269 before you crest the top of La Bahada hill--IIRC, it's right around MP7 on the Santa Fe extension. I've seen trains laying over just before the US 285 exit in the median where there's a short CTC-controlled siding, but I expect that most runs lay over in front of the depot in Santa Fe.

They've decided to survey riders about the service, and the survey is surprisingly broad -- one question mentioned that they were considering allowing local musicians to perform on a car, and wondering whether you would dislike it, or whether you wouldnt' mind it on certain days and times.

They did ask whether "no sunday service" was a reason for not taking the train, among many other things.

The survey (which I didn't actually answer, as a non-New Mexican) is at www.nmrailrunner.com.

While Rail Runner is a very good idea--economics are about to play a big part in its future.
One: A University of N.M. economics professor claims that Rail Runner will hit (by the end of 2009), a cost overrun of about a Billion Dollars
Two: With a major scandal involving the State retirement fund-that will also cost about a Billion Dollars to get taken care of,
and lastly Three: the gas and oil tax revenue income has dropped more than anticipated--
New Mexico has some major financial problems coming to a head all at once.
All in all, any more expansion of Rail Runner, (it is believed that ridership has hit its highest level already), with not be forthcoming.