This past Sunday the Abuquerque Journal North editorial nicely summed up what the C&TS Commission and the C&TSMC need to concentrate on. Other than an error in stating that two C&TSMC directors resigned (only one did), the editorial is really spot on. Here it is:
EDITORIAL
Railroad Basic To Economy
The folks who run Chama’s popular Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad seem to have jumped the track here recently — apparently in a dispute over who’s going to be the engineer, who’s the brakeman and who’s going to shovel the coal on the narrow-gauge train that crisscrosses the high country between Chama and Antonito, Colo.
Two members of the board for the management company that runs the railroad quit, and the train’s general manager resigned last month. The manager apparently quit because he found out he was going to be what amounts to only second in command — the company’s newly appointed board president was going to “mentor” him and review all his decisions. One board member had already resigned, then the board vice president quit next to protest the situation.
Whatever the problem was, everybody was making nice by the time the C&TS Commission — a different body altogether whose members are appointed by the governors of the two states — met in Santa Fe last week. The management company’s board president/mentor apologized for the confusion and told the commissioners his first priority would be to recruit a new general manager as the historic line heads into its 40th anniversary season.
The commissioners suggested “team building” might be a suitable goal for the management company board, too, and while that may be a cliche, it’s certainly apt.
The Cumbres & Toltec is vital to the economies of two little towns in two of the poorest regions of both states. Day-trippers and overnighters flock to Chama all summer and fall to ride the train, spending money at restaurants, grocery stores, motels and gas stations there as a result. The train supports a small cafeteria at its mid-point, staffed by locals from either side of the state line. In Antonito, village officials are talking about ways to better entice traffic from the train’s terminus to the nearby business district that includes a steakhouse, a cafe and a bar and grill — not to mention a grocery store and a gas station that also carries locally made take-home specialities like tamales and enchilada casserole.
Tourists who come to the area to ride the train often are discovering for the first time that this same area has much of the very same scenic beauty and many of the same recreational opportunities, from fishing and hiking to skiing and snowmobiling, that better known and significantly more crowded areas in both states also like to boast about. As a result, these train-riders often come back to spend more time (and money) in the area. This is economic development at its most basic and most effective. In northern Rio Arriba County and Colorado’s adjoining Conejos County, residents often must scrape a living out of multiple seasonal jobs. The train and the traffic it brings translate directly and reliably into more jobs for local residents in what are usually locally owned businesses. And the train’s late-spring to early-fall operating schedule stretches the working season, guaranteeing a little more cash on hand through the winter.
It looks like the management company and its board of directors have gotten their priorities straight and are now intent on doing what they were hired to do: run a railroad. It’ll be up to the two-state commission to make sure they follow through on that commitment. Many families’ jobs depend on it.
