Belen to Santa Fe Commuter Rail Project Project Development History October 2009 New Mexico Rail Runner Express Train at Waldo Canyon Bridge Commuter Rail Project History Report Table of Contents Belen to Santa Fe Commuter Rail Overview ...................................................................... 3 Commuter Rail Defined .................................................................................................. 4 Regional Context ............................................................................................................ 6 Transportation Issues in the Middle Rio Grande Valley ................................................ 6 Transportation Issues in the Albuquerque to Santa Fe Corridor ................................... 16 Commuter Rail and the Belen to Santa Fe Corridor ..................................................... 19 Commuter Rail Project Status Phase I .............................................................................. 27 Branding and Naming ................................................................................................... 27 Station Development ..................................................................................................... 28 Rolling Stock Acquisition ............................................................................................. 37 Negotiations with the BNSF ......................................................................................... 42 Property Acquisition ................................................................................................. 43 Rights ........................................................................................................................ 44 Responsibilities ......................................................................................................... 45 Is This a Good Deal? ................................................................................................. 45 Service Design .............................................................................................................. 47 Operations ..................................................................................................................... 70 Public Involvement ....................................................................................................... 74 Commuter Rail Project Status Phase II ............................................................................. 78 Alternatives Analysis .................................................................................................... 78 Land & Development ................................................................................................ 85 Market Analysis ........................................................................................................ 86 Operational Performance .......................................................................................... 93 Noise Analysis .......................................................................................................... 93 Biological & Cultural Resources .............................................................................. 99 Cost ........................................................................................................................... 99 Public Comment...................................................................................................... 100 Santa Fe Southern Section ...................................................................................... 100 Preferred Alternative Selection ............................................................................... 102 Alternative 1 and I-25 Median Issues ..................................................................... 102 Environmental Clearance and Project Development Activities .................................. 105 Rolling Stock Acquisition ....................................................................................... 105 Track Procurement & Construction ........................................................................ 106 Signalization, Communications & Dispatch ........................................................... 111 Station Development ............................................................................................... 112 Service Design ........................................................................................................ 119 Environmental Analysis & Public Interactions....................................................... 130 New Mexico Rail Runner Express Financials ................................................................ 137 Capital Costs ............................................................................................................... 137 Operating Costs ........................................................................................................... 141 2 Commuter Rail Project History Report Belen to Santa Fe Commuter Rail Overview On July 14th, 2006 at 5:10 a.m. the first regularly scheduled New Mexico Rail Runner Express commuter train left the downtown Albuquerque station for the Sandoval/U.S. 550 station in Bernalillo. This trip represented the start of service for a project that began in earnest in January of 2004, two and half years prior to the first day of service. On December 11th, 2006 service was opened to Los Lunas, and on February 2, 2007 service was extended to Belen. The Bernalillo County/International Sunport station was opened on April 17th, 2007 followed by the opening of the Downtown Bernalillo station on April 27th, 2007. The Isleta Pueblo station was officially put into service on Friday December 19th, 2008. On November 10, 2008, the first New Mexico Rail Runner Express test train slowly navigated the new alignment into Santa Fe and back. On December 15, 2008, two inaugural trains made the trip from Belen to Santa Fe marking the official opening of service to Santa Fe. Two days later, on December 17th, 2008, the first regularly scheduled revenue trains ran between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The opening of the Santa Fe extension added another 50 miles of service to the New Mexico Rail Runner Express operating territory and marked the completion of an aggressive project to implement 100 miles of commuter rail service within a five year time frame. The development of service in this corridor within the schedule and budget set forth for the project required concurrent efforts on many fronts. New cars and locomotives were procured; existing track and facilities were purchased from the BNSF; property was purchased for stations and the new track alignment Ten stations and 22 miles of new track was constructed, several sidings were upgraded and approximately 80 miles of new CTC was put in place. New gates were installed at over 20 road crossings, 9 crossings were closed and quiet zones were implemented along several portions of the corridor. A internet based and hand held ticket purchase system was implemented along with a customer service and dispatch center. Train schedules and new coordinated bus routes were developed to provide new or improved connections to key markets. Finally, a tax initiative was placed on the general election ballot in November of 2008. This initiative was passed by the voters providing operating funds for train and bus service. The implementation of commuter rail service in this corridor began in August of 2003 when Governor Bill Richardson announced that his administration was going to pursue the implementation of commuter rail between Belen and Santa Fe. To kick off this effort, the Governor provided the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and the Mid Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) with grants of $1 million to begin the implementation. In September of that same year, the New Mexico State Legislature convened in special session and passed House Bill 15, now referred to as Governor Richardson’s Investment Partnership (GRIP), a $1.6 billion transportation improvement package. One of the projects in this bill, Section 27, A(2) was the implementation of commuter rail between Belen and Santa Fe. 3 Commuter Rail Project History Report Responding to this legislative and executive initiative, the MRCOG and the NMDOT developed a strategy for implementing commuter rail in this corridor. The project was divided into two phases. Phase I includes the portion of the corridor between Belen and Bernalillo. Phase II covers the remaining portion between Bernalillo and Santa Fe. The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the status and project development history of both phases of the commuter rail system.. This document was originally produced in September of 2004 to provide interested parties with information on the status of the various elements of the commuter rail project from Belen to Santa Fe. Since its original production, it has been updated on a quarterly basis to reflect the most recent information. It has also been posted on the New Mexico Rail Runner web site continuously since September of 2004. The information contained in this report has been drawn from a large number of disparate sources. There is a significant amount of detail in many of these sources that is not reproduced in this document, but is available should additional questions arise. Commuter Rail Defined There are many different types of rail passenger transport in service in the U.S. today. Amtrak provides long distance interstate passenger service in many corridors. Large