Railfan dreaming

I’ve leaned on Amtrak and reported on developments in freight rail, explained railroad technology, and generally discussed a wide range of railroad related topics. Let’s face it: You’ve got to be a pretty crazy railfan to love to write about this stuff as I do. Not strait-jacket and drool-at-the-mouth certifiable crazy, but pretty nuts.

Just a few days ago, I realized that I’d been focused on so much of what Amtrak is doing wrong, that I have failed to talk about what passenger railroading could be, if we just dream a little. I think that last time I wrote about dream passenger routes was a few posts about possible new and interesting Chicago Transit Authority ‘L’ routes for both locals and tourists. (Maybe I fantasized about Amtrak from El Paso to Denver once before.)

Amtrak’s possible surrender of long-distance routes and the potential for private operations got me thinking about what routes I’d like to see; routes not based on the current sorry state of Amtrak, but on some solid logic and transportation needs. I’m an old Chicagoan, so I’d love to see some realistic, reliable, and convenient routings from there. But I currently live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so I’d love to see that old idea of El Paso, TX, to Denver, CO, become a reality.

(As well as being on the current route of the Southwest Chief, which may have found its salvation in congressional action as I write this, Trinidad, CO, would be on the route of my fantasy Denver to El Paso train. This photo shows the station and its proximity to the freeway.)

Let’s start with that one and be logical. The first hurdle would be getting the BNSF/UP joint line to handle it in Colorado. The alternative for a private operator would be to convince BNSF/UP to move it’s freight to a north-south route further east, probably a more expensive proposition requiring some new track, signals, PTC… the whole nine yards of a new railroad in some cases.

The second hurdle would be more of the same. BNSF has a little-used line from Belen to southern New Mexico, but south beyond Rincon (near Hatch) it gets pretty busy and would require UP to get involved getting into El Paso proper. In some way, perhaps with a developer’s money and connections, the freight railroads have to be convinced to stop their whining and instead look forward to participating in the economic boon that such passenger routes would bring.

(BNSF yards, fueling facilities and crew change point in Belen, NM, south of Albuquerque. New Mexico Rail Runner Express' southern terminal is single track at far left.)

If you could tie up that Gordian knot, terminal and station space would be the next thing. On this, my theory of contemporary mixed-use would require that each community served would need to find a developer eager to finance and build. The terminals/stations should have commercial, and residential space both inside the station and in immediate neighborhoods, and the developer should ideally contribute or find private financing for one hundred percent of the railroad part of the infrastructure. Ideally, every community along the way would participate in getting its own developments going, but it should not be mandatory. It'll become more attractive once success can be proven.

If we go the nuts and bolts route, the next question would be powering the trains. If we go the service philosophy route, it would probably be scheduling. Both are easy answers in my fantasy world of anything-is-possible.

The trains should eventually be all electric, but this isn’t a high-speed project and must share some right-of-way with other motive power. It’s all right to go with diesel, as long as its clean, not by the government’s definition, but as clean as it can get. Scheduling should be nothing less than hourly, except maybe longer between midnight and six AM.

Denver to El Paso is a minimum 715-mile train ride, and a potential 18-hour trip. Thinking of service, hourly trains over the entire route would be a budget-buster. Trains have to connect, however, and do so logically. There’s already a commuter service between Belen and Santa Fe on part of this route, so that would be a redundancy. At least three daytime hourly trains from Albuquerque to El Paso each way makes sense. Not only are the end points larger cities, but the sub-route serves three New Mexico university campuses and UTEP in El Paso. The three daytime trains each way prescription also works for Denver to Colorado Springs and/or Pueblo and from the latter two to Albuquerque.

(Amtrak arrival in El Paso, TX, the southern terminus of my fantasy Denver to El Paso route. El Paso Union Station building is in right background.)

There would be a lot of overlapping and weaving trains in and out of the way of other trains in the passenger network. See European railways like those in Germany or Holland for examples of how this is done with great ease and precision.

Overnight trains with dining cars and sleepers are a railfan’s dream, but practically, this route would be better served if the developer builds station hotels in each intermediate city with space—maybe even dinner reservations—that can be purchased with a train ticket. Overnighters spend a lot of money in local economies while traveling--another sell for private money development.

All this sounds pretty pricey, and it is. That’s why I’m calling this a dream passenger route. On the other hand, one can imagine the economic lift this would give to a wide area of the Rocky Mountain West. Sometimes it’s worth dreaming.

©2018 – 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.)