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Bulletin, March 2013

March 2013

The Yard Bird

The Albuquerque Journal published an op ed on December 26, by our JW, related to the redevelopment of the Rail Yards and the role of Rail transit in this process. In said article we propose a modern Rail shuttle between the Alvarado Center (First and Central) and the old Blacksmith Building in the Yards. We’re calling it the “Yard Bird”. The Blacksmith shop looks like a future Union Station if we ever saw one.

The sets of tracks leading North toward Downtown from this building and the rest of the Rail Yard have deteriorated and several rails are missing, but they are still more or less there. One old diagonal used to connect several spurs Northbound from the Rail Yard to a point near First Street and the Coal Ave bridge. This looks like a promising route, but we’ve got much more to learn.

Consult: “The Albuquerque Rail Yards” under “Hot Topics” at https://nmrails.org .

Besides our little Bird, there’s another modern Rail possibility for the Yards: City Councilor Benton has recommended putting the Rail Runner maintenance facility in the Yards, making said Yards serve in a small way the function they filled in the old days. Another of the above-mentioned track sets might well serve this purpose. As above, we have a lot to learn about this, and are planning meetings with appropriate experts.

Old Fashioned Civics Lesson: Get active. If you like what we’re trying to do (hell, even if you don’t), contact your friends and various associates and your local and national political leaders. They do pay attention if they hear from enough people for long enough. If you are connected with any of the “social networks”, please spread the word through these. We can compose the messages, or you can. Passenger Rail is a big issue, in part because it fortifies so many others.
If you’re interested in Rail Yard matters, or want to weigh in on Rail transit in connection with this, contact Petra Morris at: pmorris@cabq.gov.

There is a new group forming, concentrating on urban Rail (transit) for Albuquerque. We like the idea of more than one independent outfit working more or less together, like a team of cats. Contact Herschel Wilson at: albuquerquestreetcar@mail.com.

The Southwest Chief And Its Tracks:

We secured a proclamation of support last October from the Albuquerque City Council supporting Amtrak’s Southwest Chief (signed by all nine Councilors). More recently, a “resolution” to this effect passed by the same margin at the City Council (a resolution ranks higher than a proclamation). And on March 12, the Bernalillo County Commission issued a “Certificate Of Recognition” supporting the Chief, complete with a pat on the back for Rails Inc.

Our thanks to Councilor Benton and Commissioner Hart-Stebbins.

For those of you handy with math, this will be easy. For those who are not, it’ll still be easy:

*** Upgrade the tracks from Newton KS to Lamy NM: $100 million (over 10 years)
*** Track maintenance to 80 mph standards, per year: $ 10 million (per year)
*** All costs to be shared by New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Amtrak and the BNSF Railway.

Doing said math, Preserving and upgrading this 636-mile right of way would cost each of the five “stakeholders” approximately $4 million per year. Seen in the multi-billion dollar context of highway and airport investment, this looks like a pretty good deal. It’s an even better deal when you consider all the other potential uses of these tracks.

Consult: https://nmrails.org , the third article under “Hot Topics”.

Late Breaking News (Relatively):

During the last part of February, two pieces of legislation (“memorials”) related to the SW Chief made it through the NM House of Representatives.

One, under the auspices of the New Mexico branch of the SW Chief Coalition (NM-SWCC), is a basic statement of support for the Chief, with many good reasons why. This memorial has passed unanimously in both the NM House and the NM Senate.

The Other, instigated by us, tries to take this several steps further by calling for a study or market research program toward developing revenue uses for the tracks themselves—-uses beyond the important one of hosting the Chief twice a day. We want to see those tracks put to work full-time. We did not expect unanimity, or even an easy passage, but—-we cleared the House Business and Industry Committee 8-3 and the full House 45-22 (including 10 Republicans). We’re happy, but this is just a beginning. We did not have time to work the Senate.

All this good news is of course contingent on the resolution of the long-standing track ownership impasse between the BNSF Railway and the Martinez administration.

Conference Notice:

The Rail Users Network, a smart and honest national passenger Rail group (our JW is a recently-elected board member) is holding a conference in Chicago on April 26-27. If you’re there, or care to be, this might be most interesting. For more information, contact:

http://www.railusers.net OR 1-207-776-4961.

Regional Transportation Planning Meetings

The Mid Region Council Of Governments (MRCOG) is putting together the latest of their Transportation Improvement Plans (TIP). There will be a series of public meetings in connection with this. The good news is that they’ve figured out that transportation goes way beyond cars cars cars, roads roads roads. the other good news is that they’re acting like the Rail Runner is here to stay. The bad news is that they are not looking at any other Rail transit for the region. Just more and better busses.

This is better than nothing, but not enough. For more information and for meeting dates / places;
consult: http://www.mrcog-nm.gov/transportation, or write: tsylvester@mrcog-nm.gov.
Note: If you want to be on our e-mail list instead of our p-mail list, let us know.

Our Traveling Show

We have put together a presentation “to go”, complete with computer slides (Mac). If anybody is putting up a meeting and would like a speaker with illustrative material, we’re available.

Bulletin, October 2012

Ladies And Gentlemen, this time we have two topics of major interest:

1) Albuquerque Itself:

The city of Albuquerque has finally bought the old Santa Fe Rail Yard property and has signed up a highly regarded developer called Samitaur Constructs to re-develop same. There will be provision for “work force” housing on the site, along with the Wheels Museum and various uses yet to be worked out. A series of public meetings has begun. Contact: pmorris@cabq.gov or 924-3897 for more information on these.

These are exciting developments, except: So far no Rail transit in these plans.

As you likely recall, about 5 years ago several Modern Streetcar proposals were floated for Albuquerque. The “official” pro-Rail forces went for Central between Downtown and Nob Hill, about 3 miles to the East. This proposal was shot down, in part because most people (and Councilors) in Albuquerque couldn’t see what that project would do for them.

Although any Rail transit is a good deal, we think a couple of alternate proposals would have made for a better local Urban Rail debut. One is called the “String Of Pearls”, a circulator beginning and ending at the (adjacent) Rail Runner and Amtrak stations and picking up many important local destinations: Old Town, the Bio Park, museums, the major cultural centers, etc.

We are attempting to tie the “String Of Pearls” to the redevelopment of the Rail Yard, through contact with local leaders and through public outreach. We’ll be pushing big rocks uphill here, since Albuquerque transit is bus-only, and the Planners don’t appear to be looking further.

Please attend and speak out at the public meetings, and contact the Mayor, your City Councilor, your County Commissioner and your friends and neighbors and tell them bus-only transit is not good enough. We need busses, but we need Light Rail and Modern Streetcar service too. Call, write or e-mail them. Here’s the information:

Mayor Berry: PO Box 1293, Albuquerque 87103
768-3000
mayorberry@cabq.gov
City Council: Go to http://www.cabq.gov/council for contact information
County Commission: Go to http://www.bernco.gov for contact information.

2) The SW Chief And Its Tracks:

This is the picture we see as this is written:

When Amtrak’s present contract with the BNSF Railway expires in 2015, the Southwest Chief will likely be re-routed through Wichita KS, Woodward OK, Amarillo TX, and Clovis NM. We had thought that the new stop for Albuquerque would be Belén (via the Rail Runner), but an Amtrak employee tells us that the Chief will still call at our Downtown station.

We’ve come around to this change, since it serves several hundred thousand more people than our favorite route. But it’s existence depends on the new host cities realizing just how damn lucky they’re about to get, and upon the BNSF making room on this major freight line. If you know anybody in those cities, please talk to them or forward this bulletin.

Which leaves Newton KS-Lamy NM out of luck.

The SW Chief Coalition, based in La Junta CO (with a branch out of Santa Fe), is valiantly working through political channels to keep the Chief where it is (as are we), and we hope they pull off this near-miracle. But we can’t imagine who in Congress (Amtrak’s boss) would want to shell out many millions for the present route when they could open up a big new passenger market for (we think) somewhat less.

Rails Inc wants to see BOTH routes served. Newton-Lamy must be saved, for reasons listed in our recent bulletins. The BNSF Railway still runs significant freight on the Kansas and Colorado parts of the route, which also serves them as a relief route if something happens to one of their major “Transcon” lines.

Which leaves passenger service. If Amtrak dumps Newton-Lamy, we think the route should be open to operation by a regional railroad. At least one has expressed interest in filling the gap. Amtrak enjoys a passenger-service monopoly where they actually run; hopefully this would not apply on a route they abandon.

We suggest that, after the elections, you contact your Senator and Congress Member and declare your support for passenger Rail on both these routes. Use the Post Office and your phone as well as your-e-mail.

JW
Rails Inc

Rails, Inc

Bulletin, May 2012

1) Amtrak’s Southwest Chief:

As you may know, the present alignment of the SW Chief is not assured beyond the next couple of years. At risk is the segment that runs from Newton, KS to Lamy, NM (636 track miles). The BNSF Railway, which owns these tracks, does not need to operate on this route (when they do at all) faster than 45 mph. This means they don’t have to keep the tracks up to the 80 mph standard desired by Amtrak for passenger trains. Which in turn means that the SW Chief is slowly getting slower and slower.

Somebody needs to come up with about $ 90 million to restore the track to 80 mph (“Class 4”)standards and a few more million a year to keep them that way. I say a few more because rails last a lot longer and require much less repair than do roads and highways.

Since this track segment is presently used for very little besides two SW Chief trains a day, a lot of sensible people (and their political leaders) might reasonably wonder, why the hell spend this kind of money just to keep two trains a day running —- especially since an alternate route through Wichita, Northwest Oklahoma, Amarillo, Eastern NM and Belen will be available for rerouting the Chief should the need arise.

Besides the fact that the Chief is an all-important transportation resource to the three states in question, Rails Inc feels that those tracks are a very attractive resource for anybody — private or public — who owns and is willing to upgrade them and who can imagine more than a couple of years (or an election cycle) into the future.

Here’s what we mean:

(Adapted From the Rail Users’ Network National Newsletter, Spring 2012):

Several cities and towns along the (Newton-Lamy) route have passed and are passing resolutions supporting their desire to keep the Chief running where it is, citing the many benefits the train confers on their communities. A New Mexico branch of the SW Chief Coalition (based in La Junta CO) is putting itself together. The purchase by the State of New Mexico from the BNSF of the Raton Pass-Lamy track segment is still in limbo, where it has resided since the Martinez administration took over.

While we don’t believe the tracks are in imminent danger of being torn up and scrapped, Rails Inc has taken the position that to save the Chief we save the tracks, and to save the tracks we demonstrate what attractive resources they are. So “with a little help from our friends”, we’ve compiled a list of uses for these tracks — beyond the important function of hosting two Amtrak trains a day. Here they are: Anybody got any to add ?

1)   Hosting the SW Chief, of course.

2)   Hosting future Amtrak Superliner (or similar) service from El Paso to Denver and points North, via Albuquerque, Raton and Pueblo (see our “Rocky Mountain Flyer” material at www.nmrails.org or Rail magazine, #25).

3)   Establishment or expansion of commuter and regional Rail in the three affected states.

4)   Restoration of rail freight and express. The costs of fuel, tires and asphalt are not dropping.  Private haulers, short lines and entrepreneurs might find this an acceptable risk if they don’t have to buy and own the tracks.  Truckers don’t have to own the roads they run on.

5)   Excursion trains, both modern and vintage.  Besides their educational and cultural value, they can make pretty good money.

6)   Hosting the field testing of new Rail safety components and other Rail products.

7) Hosting BNSF trains again, if anything happens to the Transcon.

8)   Not to forget:  Promoting the increased economic development, core-city renewal and tourism (with their considerable employment and tax revenues) that improved Rail transportation always pulls in. This should be especially attractive to the towns and cities in the parts of Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico we’re concerned with, and to their leaders.

It has also been suggested to us that advocates should compile a list of potential users of these tracks (towns, cities, schools, ranches, tourist attractions, transportation companies, excursion trains, etc) and ask them how permanent and reliable access to said tracks might improve or expand their operations. From this, revenue estimates might be put together to increase the attractiveness of the segment to either private or public potential ownership.

In the short haul, like seeds and range land, we need to “bank” these tracks till we can put them to the full use they deserve. If we’re short-sighted enough to let them go, it’ll be like the late 40’s all over again. Conventional, High Speed or Mag Lev, the future of this right of way should always be Rail.

2) National Train Day

On Saturday, May 12 (10 AM), said day will be celebrated at the Wheels Museum, 1100 2nd SW, Albuquerque. Rails Inc will have a table there, primarily to add a Rail Future aspect to an event primarily celebrating Rail Past.

We hope to use this event (which we support anyhow), and the upcoming Rail Yard redevelopment initiative (yes, folks, this may finally be happening), to call attention to the long-stifled issue of Rail transit for Albuquerque. We’re not anti-bus here at Rails Inc, we’re anti-bus-only.

3) Regional Transit Progress

Actually, there is some. The Regional Transit District (“Rio Metro”), an arm of the Mid Region Council Of Governments (MRCOG) which operates the Rail Runner, is engaged in a long-term transportation planning process. The good news is that they have fully embraced both the Rail Runner and the idea that we can no longer solve our transportation, energy and land use problems with more and more roads and more and more cars. They are paying close attention to the importance of transit to a civilized and “sustainable” New Mexico. The bad news is that their planning is oriented almost entirely toward faster and better bus service rather than more Rail transit (Light Rail and Modern Streetcar). There’s no evil here that we can detect; just some people trying to achieve the politically possible.

Let’s help them out: Contact the MRCOG and let them know you support Rail transit in central NM beyond just the Rail Runner.

As usual, we urge everybody to pass this material on to your friends and acquaintances and to your political leaders. Public pressure still counts for something, if actually applied for long enough by enough people. Please be active, ladies and gentlemen.

Bulletin, October 19, 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen:
There are two important meetings coming up in Albuquerque:

1)   UNM / CNM / Sunport Transit Study Meeting

Loma Linda Community Center

1700 Yale SE

Monday, October 22, 6-8 PM

2)   Rail Yards Master Plan Process Meeting

Barelas Community Center

801 Barelas SW (just East of the Zoo)

Thursday, October 25, 6-8 PM

Please try to attend and either speak out or leave a comment in support of Rail transit. Busses are necessary, but not enough. Ask every other major city in the North American West.

Thanks to your own little Rails Inc, the City Council has issued a public proclamation in support of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, citing its safety, fuel economy and importance to commuting and tourism.

If you’re interested in joining another Rail group besides us, we strongly recommend the Rail Users Network, an honest and independent national passenger Rail advocacy group.  Here’s their information:

Rail Users’ Network

55 River Road

Steep Falls, Maine  04085

JW

Rails Inc

Train Safety Editorial

Congress Doing Something Solid

In the aftermath of several multiple-fatality train wrecks in the last few years,  Congress, with unheard-of efficiency, mandated the implementation of a train safety system called Positive Train Control (PTC), to be in place nationally by the end of 2015.  Most readers are at least dimly aware of this, and also of the fact that Congress has extended this deadline through 2018.

Despite being a modern-passenger-Rail activist, I consider this three-year delay a good thing.

PTC is a GPS- based technology for monitoring trains and stopping them automatically in the event of a train being where it should not be; like on the same track as an oncoming train.  It is very complicated and very expensive. Several railroads, such as the BNSF Railway and California’s Metrolink. have, to their credit, started installing PTC ahead of Congress’s mandate.   But besides its cost and complexity (many billions of dollars and a similar number of electronic “moving parts”), PTC is a one-size-fits-all solution that may not be needed in shorter or less crowded Rail corridors.  It’s also useless at spotting some serious and common dangers, like obstructions on or damage to the tracks ahead of the train.

Other Possibilities:

In the hope that this three-year delay will buy some time for more discriminating thinking about rail safety systems, I offer here a list of possible alternatives, most of whose components have been on the shelf for several years and need not be exhaustively field-tested from scratch.

—  CTC (Centralized Train Control).  In this system, routing decisions are under the control of a dispatcher at a principal station. Not too unlike air traffic control.

—  ATS (Automatic Train Stop), which stops the train in the event of a broken track, an unresponsive operator, an earthquake, or if the train blows through a Stop signal.

—  Dead Man Switches.  Two common types (for controlling industrial or workshop equipment) are those you stand on or hold closed in your hand.  If you fall down, drop dead, or are otherwise inconvenienced, the switch is automatically released, shutting down said equipment.  Another type is on a kind of timer so that, if you don’t slap it with your hand every 30 or so seconds, it stops the train.

(NOTE):  Our own Rail Runner Express is equipped with these three systems. Others include:

—  Off-the-shelf video cameras along the tracks, the spacing to be governed by visibility, track curvature, density of nearby infrastructure, and the like. These cameras would serve a high-resolution color monitor located in the cab of each locomotive, and would inform the engineer (and the dispatchers and local emergency-response personnel) of any vehicle or object stuck on the tracks, any vandalism being committed on same, or just plain washouts.

—  LIDAR and Radar in conjunction with, or instead of, said cameras.  This variant might be very useful for use at night or in rough, low-visibility weather conditions.

—  Drones.  Yeah, I said drones.  These little double-edged swords could fly in front of every train, either under the control of the engineer (or the conductor, or the second engineer that every long-distance train should carry), or possibly tethered electronically to the train.

—  Lasers.  Somewhat like the old photo eyes, these would be aimed just below the level of, say, a subway platform.  If anything roughly human-sized (like a human) falls or jumps off the platform, the body would cut the beam, triggering an alarm in the train cab or an automatic link to the brakes.

—  Handcars.  This one may be unnecessary or downright goofy, but an unmanned radio / video-equipped handcar running roughly a mile ahead of a hazmat train on less-crowded corridors would be an almost sure-fire canary in the coal mine.  If something happens to it, hit the brakes.

This list is rather arbitrary.  In actual use, we would probably see different combinations and variants of these, depending on the route, the surrounding terrain, traffic density, etc. Most or all of these could be programmed to hit the brakes automatically, or serve as “dashboard”   instruments to warn the operators.

On many North American routes, especially in the West, there is almost no danger of a train-to-train collision, simply because there are not all that many trains.  But track obstructions, washouts, vandalism, and possible terrorism are occasional facts of life, and just as destructive.

Should the glorious day ever arrive in North America in which our long-distance tracks once again host a quantity of passenger Rail traffic not seen since the advent of lavishly-subsidized road and air infrastructure, then it might be time to take a fresh look at the high-tech, high-end, benefits of PTC, in addition to the above  options.  By then, we’ll more likely need it. But then again, we’ll be more able to afford the investment.

Train Safety

Coming Soon

Hazardous Rail Cargo Safety

Dec 20, 2013

(Letter To Officials, Advocates And The Public)

Just re-stating the position of Rails Inc on improving train and public safety in the wake of the disaster at Lac Megantic, Quebec, and of other hazmat train incidents:

Retro-fitting old tank cars and improving the new models are both essential jobs, and must of course be pursued without further delay. But let’s not leave out a simple, quick to implement, and possibly cheaper deterrent to these horrific events:

Never leave any en-route train, especially a hazmat train, unattended.  Not for one second.  Ever.  Besides stopping a runaway before it becomes a runaway, this common sense procedure greatly reduces the chances of theft, hijacking or terrorist attack.

If existing work rules, whether in place for worker safety or corporate profit, allow such trains to be left alone, the rules must be scrapped.

Ideally, hazmat trains would haul a caboose and maybe a well-trained armed guard into the bargain. Such guards could be recruited from the ranks of returned combat veterans.

The costs incurred by these changes are well worth bearing, whether by the railroads or (more likely) their customers. Think of them as insurance premiums.

 

 

 

 

Is The SW Chief Really All That Important?

19 October 2013

Published in the Albuquerque Journal, November 21, 2013, as:

$ 200M For Rail An Investment

Most of us are at least dimly aware of that long sleek passenger train that stops in Albuquerque twice a day and is not the Rail Runner. This train is Amtrak’s Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief, a surviving remnant of our once-near-complete passenger Rail network.

This “remnant” is pretty popular: over 355,000 boardings and alightings in FFY 2012, roughly a third in New Mexico. It’s also in trouble. The tracks from Newton KS to Lamy NM, while still safe enough, are getting a little rough and ragged. The BNSF Railway, which owns these tracks, sees no compelling reason to keep the tracks up to passenger Rail speed standards (80 mph) because their freight trains don’t travel that fast, nor require as smooth a ride. So the Chief is getting slower.

More alarming is that at the end of 2015, the existing basic maintenance contract between the BNSF and Amtrak is due to expire, meaning that one of several things will occur:

1) Said contract will be “inked” in 2014 and renewed in 2016;
2) The Chief will keep running slower and slower and begin losing ridership;
3) The Chief will be re-routed from Newton-Lamy to Wichita-Woodward OK, Amarillo, Clovis and Belen, possibly complicating access to Albuquerque;
4) The Chief will be killed entirely or perhaps become two shorter trains with a long bus connection.

Why should you care?

— Primarily because the Chief is a passenger train. All modern trains, freight or passenger, lead the motorized transportation pack in fuel / energy economy, long vehicle life, long infrastructure life, all-weather efficiency, safety, economic development, public popularity and any other yardstick by which you measure good transportation.

— The Chief carries its numerous passengers not only between LA and Chicago, but between any and all city combinations along its route (over 2200 miles). In other words, the Chief is an excursion, long-distance, luxury, economy, regional and commuter train all rolled into one.

— The Chief is an excellent job-and-revenue-generating way to keep our under-used tracks warm till visionary future leaders wake up and take steps to make those tracks (expecially the New Mexico segment) carry a lot more than two “lousy” trains a day.

Big Bucks Or Chicken Feed?

The amount of money required to upgrade the Newton-Lamy track segment (636 route miles) to 80 mph standards, and to maintain it to such standards for ten years, is about $200 million or maybe less. This sounds like a lot, but under a current proposal, this money would be allocated at 10% per year, split among the BNSF Railway, Amtrak, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. This works out to about $4 million per year per stakeholder; chicken feed when you consider the many benefits of passenger Rail and the dollars we routinely shell out for our continuous street and highway improvements.

Although this funding should be a federal responsibility (after all, the Chief is an interstate operation), most advocates will be happy to see the Chief continued, preferably on its present route, wherever the money comes from. The Chief, and especially its tracks, are among the best investments anybody can make in transportation—-except of course, more bike and foot paths.

What about the Wichita-Amarillo-Clovis route? Simple. It should have a train too. We should not have to choose between these two possible alignments. Although we prefer that the Chief not get re-routed, the more southerly route should also be served (as it once was) by passenger Rail—-Amtrak or somebody else.

The American economy is supposedly driven by Supply and Demand. Rail passenger ridership, like rail freight tonnage, keeps increasing. The Demand is growing. The Supply is not. That $200 million is not a cost; it’s a very wise long-term investment.

 

The Hyperloop; Our Questions

18 August 2013

Rails Inc believes Elon Musk’s Hyperloop transportation concept to be promising and exciting.  Readers may be aware that this concept dates back to just after the Civil War (ours), when a pneumatic-tube subway operated under Manhattan. The technology of the time was not up to the vision, but the thing actually ran for awhile. Having said that:

There are a lot of questions we feel need to be answered (if this is not already happening) before this system can be built.  Here are some we consider  likely to be raised by the public:

—   How will outside temperature extremes affect tube tolerances, if the passenger pods have to snugly fit the tube?

—   How would fresh air be supplied and assured within the pods?

—   Are there any solid energy consumption (“fuel economy”) projections per passenger-mile?

—   How to escape either the pod or the tube itself should the need arise? Different door design for the pods?  Elevators and stairs at every few pylons? How would exit / escape platforms affect the vacuum capabilities of the tubes?  If one pod has to grind to a halt, how to keep it from getting rear-ended?

—   How about windows or transparent tube sections?

—   What about the sound barrier?

—   What about the long-term medical effects of acceleration, deceleration, G-forces, magnetic fields, etc? Would any of this affect, say, pacemakers?

—   Will personal electronic devices work in the pods?

—   How does the Hyperloop compare in cost, efficiency and safety to “Urban” Mag Lev?  For that matter, how far along is Urban Mag Lev?

—   How big a market is there for the LA-San Francisco route with no stops between?  Could San Diego be practically added?

—   Will there be much of a cost or design problem running the Loop in and around freeway exits, flyovers and cloverleafs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail Transit Smart Direction for City

(Published as Op Ed, Albuquerque Journal, Dec 26, 2012)

It looks like the long-stymied redevelopment of the Albuquerque Rail Yards is finally happening.

The city has contracted with a developer called Samitaur Constructs to design a modern multi-purpose destination utilizing the major existing yard buildings. Several open houses have been held to introduce these proposed designs to the public.

The good news is that they’re coming up with some great ideas: solar panels, green roofs, water catchment, a growers’ market, affordable housing, performance spaces, the Wheels Museum. The draft plan is hitting a lot of right notes.

The bad news is that their transit proposals are at this stage insufficient (to put it as kindly as possible).

Attention is rightly being paid to traffic management, buses, bicycles, plain old walking, even steam trains. But as this is written there is no provision for modern rail transit of any kind. This despite the fact that the nearest main track runs about six feet from the east fence of the yard, and there are at least two spur lines (side tracks) running from the center of Downtown right into major buildings in the yard.

There are many reasons rail transit — light rail, modern streetcar, rapid streetcar — is roaring back almost everywhere (except Albuquerque). The one you most frequently hear concerns the happy marriage of rail-anchored transit and inner-city renewal. This alone is reason enough for metro rail, but there are many others that any regular person can appreciate:

♦ Urban trains get three to four times the fuel/energy “mileage” that buses do.

♦ Buses last about 12 years, urban rail vehicles more like 50 to 100.

♦ Rail transit rarely gets stuck in traffic.

♦ Tracks support a lot more passengers on a lot less land than streets do, and, like their vehicles, last a lot longer with less maintenance than streets do.

♦ Rail transit affords more effective deployment of security personnel (transit cops).

♦ Tire pollution and disposal are serious problems — with buses.

♦ Modern trains offer a smooth quiet ride; so quiet in fact that you’ve got to put in bells, whistles and barricades so people know they’re coming.

♦ People of all ages, colors and economic levels really like to ride trains.

If it’s not in the political or financial cards to include modern rail transit in the Rail Yard plan, we need to “bank” this possibility for the future.

The most cautious, “conservative” way to do this is to preserve these spur tracks and to remodel the buildings they go to so that the yards can be served by modern rail if and when our local political thinking catches up to the 21st Century.

And should this (literally) millennial event come to pass, we can start cheap and quick by creating a rail shuttle between the yards and the Alvarado Transportation Center. Our dream shuttle would be a modern standard-gauge streetcar (or double streetcar), new or reconditioned, diesel or electric. It would take after the Doodlebug, a short commuter train that ran between Belen and Albuquerque in the 1930s and 40s. Our dream mini-Union Station would be the old brick Blacksmith Building, the terminus of one of those spur lines.

We predict this shuttle, if built, will become a transportation rock star from its first day in revenue service.

Don’t take our word for it. And you don’t have to look to New York, Paris or Toronto to confirm these assertions. Look no further than Calgary, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, St. Louis and Salt Lake City.

Not too many hippie heavens among them, but they all know something we haven’t figured out yet.

People frequently cite the railroad origins of Albuquerque (at least Angloid Albuquerque). True enough, but irrelevant. Most of us already appreciate what passenger trains used to do for Albuquerque.

What’s more to the point is what they do for us now and what they could do in the future if there were a lot more of them.

It’s a rail yard, get it?