From Streetcar Nostalgia to Transit Fantasy

In last week’s nostalgia blog, I pointed out that Albuquerque, NM, my home base since 1995, has opted not to join the ranks of cities returning to electric streetcars. Instead, Albuquerque has opted for a federally funded (in part) Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route. This decision, made mostly by Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry and the city council, flies in the face of years of proposals for electric streetcars on approximately the same route. The route is effectively the last remaining urban portion of Old Route 66, called Central Avenue through the city.

Before I get into my transit fantasy, let me explain in more detail what this means in terms of changes to a historic highway. Route 66 passes through the downtown business district, the University of New Mexico campus, and Historic Old Town. Historic neon motels, theaters, and other commercial spaces still exist. So does the replica of the original Santa Fe train station and Harvey House Hotel that we call the transportation center (Amtrak, Greyhound and city buses). While downtown is mainly offices by day and nightclubs/restaurants by night, a vast array of local business thrives in both Old Town and the university area. Taking two traffic lanes and the median away for BRT and stations, along with many trees, much pedestrian right of way, and most parking, the character of this corridor will be changed, some say destroyed, forever.

Now to the fantasy. By virtue of its location in the steep-sided Rio Grande Valley, Albuquerque has something else that most cities do not. Through most of the east side and much of the west run a system of arroyos. In other parts of the country, these are just called storm drains or flood control channels. Many are lined with concrete, few are buried, and they have rights of way substantially more than 20 feet wide, tailor made for electric rapid transit running on a general east-west routing. Albuquerque also has a diversion channel that runs north and south from the University of New Mexico campus to the north end of town.

Just using one or two of these rights of way on each side of town could provide a lot more public transit service than BRT on Central/Old Route 66.

I’m not even suggesting burying the water channels, or even doing anything that would prevent the rights of way from being used as walking paths, as many are now. I see elegant concrete legs spread wide to the edges of the right of way and angled inward, making a flat-topped arch over the arroyos and supporting two electric tracks at a height of maybe fifteen feet above grade. How you architecturally decorate the tracks is an opportunity for creativity, like the example in the accompanying illustration.

This elevated railway would pass easily over streets and the few parks that the arroyos run through. Stations could be built with elevator and escalator access at all streets where existing north-south bus routes cross and could feed the arroyo rapid transit. Where the arroyo runs too steep, this could not be done. Most aren’t that steep, however. No steeper than the route the (ugh) BRT would take on Old 66. Downhill, the electric cars could regenerate and feed power back into the grid, to be used for the uphill climb on either side of the valley. I calculate that headways of ten minutes could be achieved with no more than four trainsets per route on each side of town. Not having to stop for other traffic or navigate the slower, narrower parts of Central would make the rapid part of rapid transit much more so.

Here's possibly the best part. The view from the electric cars on elevated tracks would be spectacular! Albuquerque is a sprawled out one-story town. Anything that gets you above that level lets you get a clear view of the whole valley, the magnificent Sandia Mountains on the east, the equally spectacular volcanoes and west mesa, and all the way to (often snow-capped) Mount Taylor, an extinct volcano about 90 miles west. From the buses, you’d get bus views.

Hey, it’s no more of a fantasy than thinking that a single BRT line created by destroying the character of a historic highway can jump start development and make more people ride public transit. I’d ride the elevated cars, not so much the buses.

© 2016 – C. A. Turek – mistertrains@gmail.com

(Charles A. Turek is a writer and novelist based in Albuquerque, NM. After four decades working in areas of the insurance industry related to transportation, he now writes on all aspects of American railroading. Charles is a political conservative but believes in public funding of passenger rail as a part of the federal government’s constitutionally conservative obligation to provide for defense and public infrastructure so that private enterprise may flourish.)