Like I said, I got no problem with serving Raton Pass, but the resources necessary to keep it open (what was it, $500 million?) could be much better spent on providing rail service in *so* many other places. The Lackawanna Cutoff comes to mind . . .
Now, now. Don't do math like Cong Mica, please. He couldn't work up a scandal
over Amtrak's annual losses on food & beverages until he added up 10 years
into a total. Only that 10-year number was big enuff to support a press release
(and even then failed to crack a billion).
The $500 million to continue the current route of the SW Chief is a 10-year total,
or $50 million a year, divided among five proposed partners: Amtrak, BSNF, Kansas,
Colorado, New Mexico.
I'm guessing BSNF believes that avoiding the aggravation of carrying the Chief on
the main line is worth $5 million a year. So that $5 million, or $50 million over 10 years,
ain't going to the Lackawanna Cutoff no way, no how.
Likewise, Kansas might in theory spend the $5 million a year on the route thru Wichita,
or extending the Heartland Flyer, but that money is not going out of state. Colorado
will spend its $5 or $50 million in Colorado but not on the Lackawanna Cutoff. And
New Mexico, ditto.
So only Amtrak's lousy $5 million a year could be directed elsewhere if the SW Chief
is not kept on the current route. That amount is probably not easily transferrable to
another project in any case. Wonder if it isn't being offered to appease BSNF, which
so clearly doesn't want the Chief on the Trans Con, and on the good will and lengthy
trackage of which Amtrak operates.
So that "$500 million" ain't going nowhere. We'll have to get the Lackawanna Cutoff
rebuilt without it.