Passenger Trains > Excellent article on SW Chief

An excellent front-page article about the SW Chief that went on for three pages appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican Sunday:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/localnews/Chief-at-crossroads

Too bad they couldn't have showed apache canyon in the video. Instead they show crummy backyards coming into ABQ.

Very good capture of the issue by the New Mexican. Clearly the reporter did her homework.

It's unfortunate to hear Amtrak's "head in the sand" approach to this issue. It's been reported elsewhere that BNSF is pursuing Amtrak for additional payments to maintain the Northern Transcon. It seems likely this may headed toward similar situation as the Michigan Central line, where Amtrak wakes up one day to find hundreds of miles of 30mph running. To say that the it's too early to engage in discussion with BNSF because their contract doesn't expire until 2015 seems foolish. Whatever the ultimate solution is, three years to negotiate and implement hardly seems excessive.

Dave

Thanks for sharing. Interesting article!

DavidP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Very good capture of the issue by the New Mexican.
> Clearly the reporter did her homework.
>
> It's unfortunate to hear Amtrak's "head in the
> sand" approach to this issue. It's been reported
> elsewhere that BNSF is pursuing Amtrak for
> additional payments to maintain the Northern
> Transcon. It seems likely this may headed toward
> similar situation as the Michigan Central line,
> where Amtrak wakes up one day to find hundreds of
> miles of 30mph running. To say that the it's too
> early to engage in discussion with BNSF because
> their contract doesn't expire until 2015 seems
> foolish. Whatever the ultimate solution is, three
> years to negotiate and implement hardly seems
> excessive.
>
> Dave

It's also an excellent opportunity to put "boots on the ground" meeting with the state transportation departments, county commissioners, representatives in Congress, etc. If you don't build your case on advantages you already possess, running around at the last moment is almost always a failure.

Creating 1,000 construction jobs in an area which is often challenged, and keeping 200 good union jobs maintaining the line is not a trivial matter in Kansas, Oklahoma, northeast New Mexico, etc.

I'd say there would be way less than 200 permanent jobs to maintain this.
How do we know BNSF and Amtrak aren't already "talking?"
There is a meeting April 10th on this matter.