What the C&TSRR Compact Actually Says (once again)

Rick_b --

Will be interesting to hear from the Chama merchants. Are you one? BTW, the C&TSRR Compact and enabling legislation says nothing directly about the local economy, although this myth does persist. What the Compact legislation by both states says is:

“The state of New Mexico and the state of Colorado, desiring to provide for the joint acquisition, ownership and control of an interstate narrow gauge scenic railroad, known as the Cumbres and Toltec scenic railroad, within Rio Arriba county in New Mexico and Archuleta and Conejos counties Colorado, to promote the public welfare by encouraging and facilitating recreation and by preserving, as a living museum for future generations, a mode of transportation that helped in the development and promotion of the territories and states, …”.

This is the language in the identical statutes of the two states that establishes the purposes of the C&TSRR Interstate Compact that was consented to by the U.S. Congress and ratified by the respective legislatures of both states and signed into law by their respective governors in 1974 (see Public Law 93-467, NMSA 16-5-1 et al, and CMS 24-60-1901 et al).