12 January 2011
Ladies And Gentlemen:
We urge you to pay attention to two Rail-related issues of great interest to New Mexico; The Rail Runner and the BNSF tracks between Lamy and Raton Pass.
We don’t think the Rail Runner is in serious trouble with the new administration in Santa Fe, although you never know. What is in trouble is the impending purchase (or not) of the above-mentioned tracks from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF).
A lot of people, some of whom are reasonable enough, think it’s a waste of money for the state to go through with the purchase of those tracks; bad economy, hard times, shortfalls, the usual boiler-plate. We, on the other hand, declare those tracks to be money in the bank, literally and figuratively, for all the same reasons any modern Rail is a good deal. We’re assembling more material about this for you, for the media and for our Web site.
Would you please do two things:
- Pass this on to anybody you know who might be interested;
- Contact Governor Martinez and your local state Senator and Representative, urging them to go through with the purchase of those tracks all the way up to Raton Pass, and for that matter, down to the border near El Paso.
We’re learning to “bank” seeds, range land and other things we need for the future. We should consider these tracks one of those needs and Bank them too, till we’re ready and able to run our own trains on them. We’ll never again have handed to us a better start-up deal in regional and long-distance transportation.
So why is this bulletin called “Part I”? Because Part II is on the way; in which we present some ideas as to how to make those tracks pay. Stay tuned.
JW
Rails Inc
