HOUSE MEMORIAL 7

54th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2019

INTRODUCED BY

Tomás E. Salazar

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF AMTRAK, THE NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION, AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO NEW MEXICO'S MOBILITY AND ECONOMY; ACKNOWLEDGING THE THREAT TO THE VIABILITY OF THE SOUTHWEST CHIEF TRAIN; REQUESTING THAT THE NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION AND THE GOVERNOR SUPPORT THE CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE SOUTHWEST CHIEF.

     WHEREAS, Amtrak, the national railroad passenger corporation and a federally chartered corporation, provides intercity transportation service to millions of Americans each year and operates two long-distance routes through New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, Amtrak's southwest chief train runs between Chicago and Los Angeles, with stops in New Mexico at Raton, Las Vegas, Lamy, Albuquerque and Gallup; and

     WHEREAS, the southwest chief serves cities and rural areas, carries passengers through scenic landscapes not visible from highways and provides a safe, comfortable and energy- efficient form of transportation; and

     WHEREAS, many New Mexico residents who ride the southwest chief depend on it as the only form of public transportation between Raton and Albuquerque; and

     WHEREAS, the southwest chief provides interstate transportation for New Mexico residents and travelers visiting New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, in federal fiscal year 2017, passengers boarded and disembarked the southwest chief in New Mexico at Albuquerque, Gallup, Lamy, Las Vegas and Raton more than one hundred twenty-two thousand times; and

     WHEREAS, each year, approximately four thousand four hundred boy scouts who camp at the Philmont scout ranch travel on the southwest chief, using the Raton station; and

     WHEREAS, the southwest chief's presence in the region enhances the state and local economies by attracting tourists and employing New Mexicans; and

     WHEREAS, the southwest chief's presence in the region supports local businesses through the purchase of goods and services; and

     WHEREAS, Amtrak spent nine hundred thirty-seven thousand seven hundred fifty-eight dollars ($937,758) on goods and services in New Mexico in federal fiscal year 2017; and

     WHEREAS, the BNSF railway company owns and leases to Amtrak most of the line on which the southwest chief carries passengers in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, many New Mexico counties, including Bernalillo, Colfax, Mora, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Cibola, Valencia and McKinley, depend on property tax revenues paid by the BNSF railway company; and

     WHEREAS, capital funding is needed to modernize the southwest chief line running from Hutchinson, Kansas, to Albuquerque so that the line meets required passenger-rail standards; and

     WHEREAS, at a 2011 meeting of the southwest chief coalition, a group of concerned citizens and elected officials from Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico, BNSF railway company and Amtrak identified the need for one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in repairs and capital improvements in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico to keep the southwest chief operational; and

     WHEREAS, in September 2014, through the transportation investment generating economic recovery 6 program, the United States department of transportation awarded Garden City, Kansas, twelve million five hundred thousand dollars ($12,500,000) to begin modernizing the BNSF railway company's La Junta subdivision used by the southwest chief; and

     WHEREAS, combined with matching funds, almost twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000) was allocated toward rail infrastructure upgrades in Kansas and Colorado; and

     WHEREAS, in 2015, the United States department of transportation awarded an additional fifteen-million-two hundred-thousand-dollar ($15,200,000) grant through the transportation investment generating economic recovery 7 program to the city of La Junta, Colorado, to continue the rehabilitation of the southwest chief line; and

     WHEREAS, combined with matching funds, over twenty-four million dollars ($24,000,000) was allocated to upgrades and repairs in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, in 2018, Colfax county, New Mexico, was awarded a transportation investment generating economic recovery 9 grant; and

     WHEREAS, with matching funds, twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) is allocated for continued upgrades in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, successful completion of the transportation investment generating economic recovery 9 grant will mean that seventy-one million dollars ($71,000,000) of the original one-hundred-million-dollar ($100,000,000) estimate of repairs and infrastructure upgrades will have been spent on upgrades; and

     WHEREAS, Amtrak has pledged three million dollars ($3,000,000) in matching funds upon the condition that there be a plan in place to guarantee that the remaining upgrades and repairs are funded and that the annual maintenance costs for the portion of the line from the Colorado state line to Lamy, New Mexico, be funded by a third party; and

     WHEREAS, these additional requests jeopardize the successful completion of Colfax county's transportation investment generating economic recovery 9 grant; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico governmental entities, including Colfax, Mora, San Miguel and Santa Fe counties, the city of Raton, the town of Springer, the villages of Cimarron and Maxwell and the department of transportation, have pledged matching funds to support the southwest chief coalition's efforts;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico congressional delegation and the governor be called upon to support the continued viability of the southwest chief; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the members of the New Mexico congressional delegation, the governor, the state transportation commission, the legislatures and the governors of Colorado and Kansas, the chief executive officer of Amtrak, the board of directors of the national railroad passenger corporation and the federal railroad administration.

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