Use this thread to report on our activities in Albuquerque, including Wednesday evening, all day Thursday (primarily RailRunner), and Friday morning.

Eight of us arrived on the westbound Southwest Chief, roughly 27 minutes late. We were met by Chris (saxman) who had come in this afternoon also a little late on the eastbound Southwest Chief from California, part of a much longer journey he is in the middle of taking.

Now 9 of us are involved. We take up three different hotels in ABQ, with the majority at the Doubletree. We walked a long 5 blocks or so, before finding out upon arrival that there is a shuttle van. We'll make use of it for the remainder of our stay.

Eight of us met for dinner at the Doubletree's Mexican restaurant, and it was not a highlight of our trip. Service was slow, and it raised an issue when we tried to do separate checks, a necessity because some were charging to their rooms, some had discount coupons, and others who were staying in other hotels were paying by credit card. We were there about 2 hours, of which only maybe 20 minutes was spent eating.

We're down for the evening, kind of happy to be on beds that are not rocking with movement of a train.

Tomorrow is our RailRunner day, so stay tuned!

And the ninth member of the group ate at a very nice restaurant!

Hello from the median of I-25, aboard Railrunner. We are currently on our longest stretch, 95 miles from Santa Fe to Belen through Albuquerque.

Santa Fe was a nice place to stop. Most of us ate at the Flying Star Cafe, and we'll hear where the above "ninth member" ate soon.

RailRunner is a wonderful operation. Nice bilevel coaches, similar to those encountered in California and on Florida's TriRail. Local touch is that the train door chimes go "Meep Meep!".

Our Fest ended today at 4:08 PM, upon arrival back in Albuquerque. As far as I know we all went our separate ways. After last night's overly expensive meal busting the budget, I had Subway. Not sure at this time where others ended up, but I don't think too many want to walk far in the heat.

RailRunner is a class operation, and basically stayed on time throughout. We aced it very well, and it comes highly recommended if you're looking to ride a local commuter rail line. Crew was friendly, if not over-indulgent in checking our passes more than once per trip as each came through the car. Ridership was excellent. Some say nobody rides trains, but here was proof especially on the first outbound train we rode in post-rush hour, which had every seat taken. I can't see it not remaining successful, and surely it would benefit from further extensions.

A logical extension IMO, Kevin, would be to connect with El Paso, TX, a city that desires such a link.
This will require a bi-state compact; probably hard to achieve since New Mexico and Texas have conservative governors.

I'm glad CRF is going well. Last year I was in Santa Fe, but I didn't have a chance to ride Rail Runner. I did see it zipping along in the I-25 median.

I am looking forward to the group's report on the Kenosha Streetcar.

Sloan

Had a good day riding up to Santa Fe. I would have stayed to see other parts of town. Maybe on another trip. It's nice for me to relax in a real hotel room for once. I was sleeping in roomettes or on air mattresses for the past week!

Sloan,

Not only Texas. Regional Rail has been proposed for the Front Range in general, possibly running all the way from Cheyenne, WY, down through Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and down through Raton Pass into Albuquerque, and then of course southward as you mention. RailRunner, as known now, would sort of be a subset of the larger system. But this would involve also Colorado and Wyoming. But then to me the resulting line becomes so long it seems Amtrak should be running it, not a local entity.

The northern piece of it is detailed here. The Wikipedia item, always coming with the FWIW warning (for what it's worth!) is here and it does incorporate New Mexico.

Now that you've aced the RailRunner system like the rest of us who rode it today, it's possible to ride up there in the morning, spend the day, and ride back to ABQ in the evening. It is a nice place to explore.

And now we know, the trip to Belen is less than half the distance from ABQ that Santa Fe is, and it does offer a close view of the Transcon BNSF line, although it technically does not enter it. Those who like to watch freights would enjoy having more time to spend out there. We were obliged with one passing freight during our brief 15 minute layover today.

Yeah, that morning jaunt on Friday to Belen netted 7 trains in 1.5 hrs. The only problem is they run at max 30 mph there.