The brief letter from Mike Franke, Senior Director of Amtrak’s State Government Contracts, notes that increasing existing track speeds to 79-mph would make the 64-mile journey 21 minutes faster, adding 700 more passengers and $38,000 of revenue compared with leaving speeds unchanged. Prior to Amtrak, the last Santa Fe passenger trains to and from Denver traversed the La Junta-Pueblo segment in one hour and ten minutes.
Separate estimates for coach and sleeping car passengers are based on Amtrak modeling which assumes patronage for a one-seat ride, as opposed to having travelers transfer to a different train.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari says, “We are encouraged by the projections presented to the Southwest Chief Commission…and will continue to work with (Chairman Sal) Pace in Pueblo, the other commissioners, and all parties along the route who are interested in expanding the Amtrak network.”
However, the study makes no attempt at this time to quantify operating, switching, labor, or infrastructure costs or suggest what ridership and revenue might accrue from an additional round-trip that would connect Pueblo passengers with western Chief-served population centers such as Albuquerque and Los Angeles.
Commission Fund member Rick Klein, the city manager of La Junta, tells Trains New Wire, “We are asking Amtrak to get cost estimates from BNSF Railway and Union Pacific by the end of July. We want to move quickly to figure out what investment they will require.” Union Pacific quotes are necessary because that railroad’s tracks are adjacent to—but do not currently serve—the restored Pueblo Union Station.
“Through car service will be an important initial building block in our efforts to reroute the train through Pueblo on its regular journey between Chicago and Los Angeles,” Colorado Association of Railroad Passengers president Jim Souby tells Trains News Wire.
“Furthermore,” he adds, “it is a step in realizing Front Range passenger rail in Colorado (because) Colorado Springs is just 40 more miles up the same route, and Denver is just another 65 miles beyond that. But first we have to make this step work.”
Stephen Keire, given the speed with which these changes usually move, no need to rent 3751, 2926 will probably be ready before this actually happens.
DMU such like the A-train here in Carrollton, TX would be a great way to connect to the SW Chief
Amtrak needs to be on the Southern Transcon. End of comment.
Actually the traffic on the joint line is the deadest I’ve ever seen and I’ve been around it since the 70’s, coal traffic is but a shell of it’s former self, it’s depressing.
Why not add cars to and from Denver as well on the joint line. Admittedly that line is BUSY, but one DMU a day or a short train could aid transit within Colorado.
I have long thought a Denver-La Junta “Front Range” train connecting with the SWC would make sense. Glad someone with more clout than me is finally looking into it. While they’re at it, continue it on north to Cheyenne (or even Laramie).
George Sucich….currently there are a fair number of C&TS riders that take the SW Chief. They detrain in Lamy, NM (Santa Fe) or in Albuquerque and make car rental arrangements from there. You could do the same for riding the Durango & Silverton. Durango is about a 3.5 hour drive from Albuquerque. Santa Fe is only a 1.5 hour drive to Chama.
Amazing that the old station hadn’t been torn down in the past.
@ R Messera…and if you read the entire article it does end up saying that they are looking at rerouting the entire train through Pueblo and add in Front Range service between Denver and Pueblo…how else would you do both of those without rerouting the entire train via Denver.
@Michael Moss…most people that ride the train aren’t doing it for speed of service, therefore a couple of additional hours are not going to kill ridership(you might lose one or two, but that’s not a big deal).
My bad—LaJunta, not Trinadad. Should have re-read the article better myself.
Mr. Moss, if you read the article, it do is not call for a reroute of the SWC, but cutting off cars in Trinadad, creating a stub train to serve Pueblo.
They should be looking at Denver-Trinidad corridor service to serve Pueblo and connect with the SWC. Why should all the thru passengers have to add a couple of hours to their trip. How much traffic will they lose by this detour? Routing a train hither and yon to catch more stations is self defeating.
Wanted to go from Kansas City to Durango (on the Southwest Chjef) renting a car in Pueblo. The bus service takes you from Raton, N.M. to Pueblo, but it doesn’t get there until 6PM, after the Enterprise office closes. There are no rent-a-car opportunities in Raton or Trinidad, Co. A stop in Pueblo would assist travelers who wish to ride the Durango Narrow Gauge or Cumbres Toltec line.
I wonder whether they in the past modeled reviving ATSF nos. 230-231 in toto and discarded the idea as economically infeasible? As long as I’m building castles in the air, the railfan in me would prefer they also lease 3751 occasionally to haul it, al la the JR East Ban’etsu Monogatari Go C57-powered trains.