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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
State Makes Deal On Rail Line; Extension Reaching to Colo. Possible
By Jeff Jones
Copyright © 2005 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
The state has reached a tentative deal to buy about 100 miles of rail line for a planned commuter-train service linking Belen, Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
The deal with BNSF Railway also might include an additional 170 miles of tracks and right-of-way between Santa Fe and the Colorado border, said Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, whose agency has been working on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express.
Rael and state Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught said Tuesday they could not disclose the anticipated price tag for the purchase, which is expected to be final by early next month. Similar deals elsewhere have cost tens of millions of dollars or more.
Service on the first portion of a Belen-to-Bernalillo commuter rail service is scheduled to begin in January, and planners hope to get a commuter train into Santa Fe sometime in 2008.
The extra line from Santa Fe through Raton, however, is a new twist.
Faught said most of the money for the purchase is for the needed Belen-to-Santa Fe leg, not for the additional track. And Faught and Rael said the extra track could pay off down the line.
"I feel very confident the state of New Mexico is getting a good deal on this," Faught said.
Gov. Bill Richardson unveiled plans for the Rail Runner Express in 2003.
The state already has written a $75 million check for a Rail Runner yard, equipment and track improvements, using a portion of a $1.6 billion transportation package approved by the Legislature in 2003. Planners hope to secure $75 million more in federal funding.
Faught said additional money from the $1.6 billion transportation package could pay for the purchase of the rail-line track itself.
Ten Rail Runner passenger cars and two new locomotives have rolled into New Mexico, and planners have chosen spots for a series of rail stops.
Rael said construction has begun on access roads and parking lots at two of those planned stops— one in Albuquerque's North Valley and another in Bernalillo.
But Rael said BNSF— formerly known as the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway— will not let construction crews on the railroad's right-of-way until a purchase or lease deal is signed.
With a purchase deal, "the Rail Runner will have priority on the track," Rael said.
He said his agency hopes to get trains rolling between Albuquerque and Bernalillo in January, with service to Los Lunas and Belen coming by March.
A line purchase between Santa Fe and the Colorado border would give the state a ribbon of land that averages about 100 feet wide, Rael said.
A Colorado group called Front Range Commuter Rail is pushing for a high-speed commuter train that would one day link Cheyenne, Wyo., Denver, Albuquerque and other points between those cities, according to a recent Associated Press report.
Rael said New Mexico's ownership of the line between the Colorado border and Santa Fe would make such a plan more feasible.
State ownership of the northern New Mexico leg also could help allow Las Vegas, N.M., to start a commuter-train service into Santa Fe, Rael said.
He said the state also could profit from easements on the corridor for things like telecommunications systems and utility lines.
"It's a great deal for the state," Rael said.
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