urr304 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 8:28 pm
I do understand that Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico put in money over the years for this route, if I read correctly BNSF threw in some money, but it still is a very expensive operation for one train each way for a rail route that is equivalent distance to crossing Pennsylvania. I know it is very scenic but that is a lot of money for one train. Does BNSF have any use for Albuquerque to Trinidad to go to Denver?
I'm sorry but I have been out of the loop for awhile especially anything west of Chicago.
No, there is no freight traffic between Lamy and Trinidad. There is/was a BNSF local (Y-ABQABQ3-XX) that worked east out of Albuquerque several times a week back in the days when I worked 3rd Raton desk. This local serviced local industries between Albuquerque and Bernalillo where it would use the siding to run around the cars. Supposedly this crew was qualified all the way to Lamy for interchange with the Santa Fe Southern. However freight on the SFS dried up and I don't think the Albuquerque local went past Bernalillo in the last three years prior to my retirement in June 2017. There is an asphalt plant in Rosario just east of I-25 that had rail service back then but the most recent Google satellite view shows no cars at the plant.
As far as BNSF chipping money in for the upkeep of the Raton line I believe this was done to keep Amtrak off of the southern trans-con. Getting BNSF freight trains through terminals at Amarillo, Clovis and Belen can be a PITA on a good day and a complete cluster**** on a bad day.