Valley Courier article "Rio Grande Scenic Railroad in receivership" (Nov 26, 2019)

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Valley Courier
In a meeting held Tuesday, Nov. 12, by the Upper Rio Grande Economic Development group, Rio Grande County Commissioner John Noffsker updated the organization on the most recent news, which was that the entire line, including the one from Alamosa to La Veta had filed for bankruptcy.

“The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad is in receivership. Ed Eillis has been fired and they have shut down the excursion train. We have done an analysis as best we could and the economic impact on the Valley from not having the train is huge. Right now, it is in federal bankruptcy court and there is a lot of technical things going on. At the end of the day, we are hoping to get to have a chance in court because this railroad owes close to $2 million in property taxes in several counties,” stated Noffsker.

“We at first thought of it as money that was lost, but that is not true. It will take a lot of work, but we may be able to recover a lot of that money. The main goal is to keep an operating railroad here in the Valley. Anyone who has ever dealt with the railroad, knows that it can be a mess, but Rio Grande County has kind of taken the lead on this and we are working to get this into the proper court. We are trying to determine whether or not the bankruptcy court is the proper venue or whether or not to try and acquire the line.”