New Mexico Eyes Rail Line Options

Santa Fe— State transportation officials in New Mexico are considering several options for the route of the rail line that would be used to link Santa Fe with points south as part of a regional commuter train system.

The various alternatives — all designed to get around the steep

Gov. Bill Richardson is pushing a commuter rail system linking Belen at the south end with Santa Fe to the north. The $75-million Belen-Albuquerque line is planned to be operational by the fall.

The governor predicted earlier this month, in announcing state acquisition of the 18-mile rail corridor extending from Santa Fe to Eldorado and Lamy, that commuter trains will be hauling passengers between Albuquerque and Santa Fe by 2008.

Just what route the trains will take into Santa Fe remains an open question, however. State Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught has said that the Albuquerque-Santa Fe line likely would involve laying new tracks that would link up with the existing Santa Fe Southern Railway route — the route recently purchased by the state — close to St. Francis Drive near Interstate 25.

Although many Eldorado residents saw the purchase of Santa Fe Southern's 18-mile right-of-way as the first step in bringing commuter rail service to their community, they might want to scale back their hopes for the time being, said Patricia Oliver-Wright, strategic planner for NMDOT, at the recent meeting.

"The Santa Fe Southern alignment through Eldorado is one of the options we're looking at [for the Albuquerque-Santa Fe route], but we have to look at a series of alternatives," she said.

The state is considering several alignments, which range from laying new track to following existing rights-of-way or long-abandoned railbeds, she said.

All of the proposed routes would branch off from existing BNSF tracks south of Santa Fe. The BNSF tracks run east-west from Lamy to Cerrillos to Santo Domingo Pueblo, then head south.

One idea for getting trains up from Albuquerque is to tap into BNSF's line near Bernalillo. The proposed line would parallel I-25 to the Waldo exit. From there, it would make a jog east to near Waldo near the bottom of the hill, then head north again to follow I-25 into Santa Fe, where it would connect with Santa Fe Southern track near St. Francis Drive. Routing the tracks through Waldo would avoid having to scale steep La Bajada, Oliver-Wright said.

Another possible, but less ambitious plan calls for building a spur that would connect BNSF tracks south of Lamy with Santa Fe Southern track to the north. The spur would bypass a twisting section of existing track that makes commuter service difficult, Oliver-Wright said.

A third possibility is laying track along NM-14 right-of-way from the BNSF tracks near Cerrillos. The advantage of this route, as well as for the I-25 option, is that the state already owns the right-of-way. Sometimes building new tracks is less expensive than purchasing rights-of-way, Oliver-Wright said.

Still another option would be to purchase the right-of-way of an old mining railroad east of NM-14. Called the Kennedy line, the old railway cuts through the Rancho Viejo subdivision near Santa Fe Community College.

Public input, costs and a host of other factors will decide which proposed route makes the cut, Oliver-Wright said.

Meanwhile, the Mid-Region Council of Governments has awarded a $12.7-million contract to the Boise, Idaho-based MotivePower subsidiary of Wabtec Corp. for five diesel locomotives to power the line's commuter trains. The locomotives are to be delivered before the end of 2005.