Under US regulation, rail over 79 MPH requires in-cab signaling, automatic train stop, or automatic train control. I guess they decided the more advanced signaling wasn't in the budget when they were constructing the line.
@@qjtvaddict no, that's specifically USA. There's plenty of European countries where in-cab signalling is only required above 200 km/h. Automated Train Stop is pretty standard though, indeed.
I recognized that magic number of 79 as being the result of this rule, but in the end it just proves they built this system as cheaply as possible, and probably missed the opportunity to get more people to use it.
I’m just impressed that New Mexico with a population density of just 6.7 people square kilometer (compared to France’s 117) built a new commuter rail line! It is not a wealthy state, either. I’d ride it just to hear the doors closing. Good work New Mexico! The criticisms in the video certainly have some validity, but what New Mexico did is better than nothing. Thanks for your posting trip.
The whole thing was a political vanity project by a Democrat party Governor who had higher ambitions. LOL it even operates with non-Union crews or agreement covered works who aren't members of real railroad unions ie carpenters union and the like. Low Ball all the way.
@@emilkarpo prefer that to the union ran money pit like the MTA. Projects run 10 years longer and 50 billion overbudget, and when they are done its broken and need repairs. Like the new LIRR Penn Station...
What's interesting is that according to City Nerd, the RailRunner between ABQ and SFNM is nonetheless one of the ten most frequent train services in the US between two city pairs outside of metropolitan regions.
Something to keep in mind is that this is New Mexico we are talking about here, not the rich Northeast. And New Mexico…isn’t known for being rich. So for what they were able to do, it still gets the job done and the scenery is beautiful. Not to mention the fare is a steal considering the distance! Love the livery! But I especially love how each station has their own unique icon design to represent each community’s identity like how Sandoval County/US 550 has grapes to symbolize the vineyards and winemakers in the area, Montaño having a cottonwood leaf which is a tree native to the region, or Sandia Pueblo having a hummingbird because it’s a bird important to the Sandia people. Some facts about the roadrunner: On cool desert nights, roadrunners enter a state of torpor, allowing their body temperature to drop to conserve their energy. To recover from their cold night of slumber, roadrunners spend the morning lying out in the sunlight. Since they can run at speeds over 15 mph and most of their prey is on the ground, roadrunners don’t have much of a reason to fly. On those occasions when they need to escape a predator, reach a branch, or catch a flying insect, roadrunners will fly for short distances, usually only lasting for a few seconds.
"Something to keep in mind is that this is New Mexico we are talking about here, not the rich Northeast. And New Mexico…isn’t known for being rich" -Yet a handful of bureaucrats managed to rip from those poor people over 1.5 billion dollars to create this boondoggle -And they did it without a single vote... In fact they crushed every attempt to put it to a vote -Why you ask... Because they new taxpayers didnt want it "So for what they were able to do, it still gets the job done" -A cart pulled by a donkey could get the job done -In fact thats exactly how it was done for generations "and the scenery is beautiful" -It travels through the armpit of the state -Some of the ugliest parts of the state are along it's path " Not to mention the fare is a steal considering the distance!" -That's because the fare is subsidized by the taxpayer ~$150 for literally each and every passenger -That family in the video, two adults & two kids... The taxpayer was forced to pay $600 for their ride -And the $600 only applies to the base operating cost
I have been riding the RailRunner for years. Let me explain a few things. The ridership was low due to the time of day and the fact that many state workers are still working from home. The morning and evening commuter trains have a LOT more people and it can be challenging to find a good seat on the morning train. Ticket prices were 75% off when you rode it. That ticket would cost you $10 today. When the Railrunner was built, ALL the tracks were owned by BNSF. The tracks were later bought by the State and they took over dispatch so they could prioritize commuter trains.
I was gonna say, you ride in the morning or evening and it's packed. I rode every day to attend highschool (New Mexico School For the Arts which btw is now at the end of the track in SF) and some mornings I wouldn't be able to sit it was so packed.
The beauty of the current system is you can Easily run the trains with an upgraded signalling system at 100mph. You can expand the trains to 12 coaches. You can run them at 10 min intervals. I do agree make the fare super cheap and introduce a SMARTCARD and place ALL Transit in the state on 1 Fare. Make it super cheap and place all the government workers and students and seniors on super cheap or free and that's how you build ridership.
"The ridership was low due to the time of day and the fact that many state workers are still working from home" -The ridership is low (and continues to shrink) due to the fact that it takes about twice as long to ride the train than it does to simply drive. "The morning and evening commuter trains have a LOT more people and it can be challenging to find a good seat on the morning train" -They have actually been removing cars because the ridership continues to crash -These days they typically only run with one, maybe two cars and the cab car -It is not at all unusual to have just a handful of riders per car, or even the entire car to yourself "That ticket would cost you $10 today" -After deducting the ticket fare, it costs the taxpayer ~$150 dollars per rider just in base operating costs (fuel/crew) -Which is intentionally deceiving by the state because they count each rider only one way when over 99% are out & back -Meaning most riders actually count as two, one out, then another back -So one ABQ commuter riding to SF for work weekdays is actually costing the taxpayer $3,000 per month -Or $36,000 per year... You could by that person a car plus pay for their gas and it would actually save taxpayer money "When the Railrunner was built, ALL the tracks were owned by BNSF. The tracks were later bought by the State and they took over dispatch so they could prioritize commuter trains" -False, that deal fell through about a decade ago because costs had already ballooned to ~4x the original budget -Just like everything else the government touches
As someone who lived in Southern NM for almost 8 years there is a lot of nuance and context missing from this review of the Rail Runner service. NM is a very poor state with little industry nor much of a private sector and lots of government support and government jobs. When you live there, you learn that most places would half-ass something, but NM quarter-asses it because that is how terrible funding is. So yeah, they likely got used second hand rolling stock that was retired from elsewhere to be a cheap and cost effective as possible. What really got me riled was with most of the wealth concentrated in Santa Fe/Los Alamos and parts of ABQ while the entire southern half of the state lost at everything. I would have loved train service from Las Cruces up to ABQ and then onto Santa Fe. I lived two blocks from the old train station which was no longer in use for passenger rail. It would have been such a smart idea, but the reason it only runs mainly from Belen to ABQ and Santa Fe is there are more people [and money] in those areas. Las Cruces, despite being the second largest city in the state, gets much less support at the state level due to being in the south and not having enough clout up in the state capital. Hell, I wanted train service from Las Cruces to El Paso and that is a pipe dream as well. The number of times I drove to and from the El Paso airport and the sheer number of people who commute on that part of I-10 is immense. Add in the terrible urban planning and design of most of these areas, the desire to be 'close' to the desert, the sheer car dependency and again that poor urban planning it creates an entire state population who swear by driving their vehicles everywhere. So, I'd still run into the problem if the train went from Cruces to ABQ - I get to downtown ABQ but how do I get to places which currently require a car? It was a very frustrating place to live on many levels and I'm honestly shocked the Rail Runner even exists in the first place a sort of stroke of luck, but again only serves a few key places in the north/central part of the state and no one else. If anything it really is representative of the entire experience of living in NM capturing the political landscape and regional politics.
The car culture is considerably faster than the horse and buggy culture... New Mexico is not by any means the most densely populated state in the union, it is nearer to the least dense... Outside of the health care, university, public schools, and truck stop industry with their commercial services support, ranching and mining are the largest industries.... Although there is some oil field and a refinery in the SE area of the state near the Permian Basin...
You may of not mention to po po on New Mexico commuter rail but you did. Their not theFrenchTVG or Japans bullet trains but it’s exactly what’s right for New Mexico. As they pay down the bonds they will improve and extend the line to Las Alamos, and Las Cruces.
I always love the ‘car dependency ’ line. Usually from people that have no idea why people like and use cars (hint: they aren’t just waiting for a rail line so building one is irrelevant to most as they wouldn’t move from the car). But hey Ho as long as you continue that fantasy.
The slow speed is due to a federal speed limit. Unless the train and tracks are fitted with special equipment--automatic cab signaling, automatic train control, and automatic train stop--it cannot travel above 80mph. Unfortunately it can be expensive, most rail lines choose not to install them as a cost-saving measure, with Amtrak's NEC and Brightline being amount the few exceptions.
Most of your complaints about Rail Runner are legit. But most of their shortcomings are due to New Mexico being one of the poorest states in America. I’m sure they would have loved to equip the trains with PTC and Cab Signal and build double tracks, but the money is just not available. 😢
I'm going to bet that part of the problem is that New Mexico mosst likely has a neocon governor from the main neocon party, the Republican Party, and it doesn't care about commuter rail service or that not everybody has a car/truck/van. EDIT: I just checked the Wikipedia page, and it's a solidly Democratic (Party) state; still, the state government could raise taxes and plow said tax monies into electrifiying the system as the OP said. This more than confiirms for me what I expressed in a video about vacationing in New Mexico made by Mark Wolters with regards to this train.
@@MyersJ2Original Ridership depends on the quality of rhe service. A faster and higher frequency service will elp to significantly increase Ridership.
@@MyersJ2Originalthe problem is that the current service is shit. You cannot convince me that a service between a city of 500k and 90k doesn’t have enough ridership potential to get electrified. If you build it they will come
Single track lines are not really that bad. It all depends on how you schedule the trains so that they don't have to wait too long for each other. Many of the mainlines here in Northern Europe are single-tracked, but we are still able to keep a high frequency.
Seaboard was almost entirely a single track line, except near yards, junctions and cities. But their passenger trains moved FAST. In the sixties I was riding with my dad on US-321 south of Columbia SC. He was probably driving about 55mph. I knew it was about time for train 58, the northbound Silver Meteor. It was completely dark. The tracks and the highway are parallel for a long way in that area. 58 caught up and effortlessly passed us. I got a very good look at the train, as it was probably going 20mph faster than my dad was driving. It was an awesome sight.
The two times I've visited Switzerland it surprised me how many of the lines around Zurich are single track, but with Swiss efficiency and timekeeping it works very well.
Exactly, makes me think of the Bolzano-Merano line in northern Italy. It's all single track, yet they run a train every 30 minutes. Ok this one is not fast (many curves, many stops), but the frequency is great, so is the ridership - despite competing with one of the only free highways in the country.
Overall, the slow Rail Runner isn't well done. Much of rural Japan is diesel-electric trains on a single track. They're not huge heavy engines or rolling stock so they are quite nimble when they move. Check out some videos there... Most go about 80mph, even if they're an express bypassing a small station. While there are some sidings here and there, much of the passing trains happen at stations, which is logical. I watched a 2~4hr videos, I think there was only 1 stop at a siding, several passings at stations which may have 2~4 lines before going back to a single. A good one is: 4K cab view - Wide View Express Train "Nanki" Nagoya to Kii-Katsuura, Japan 153miles in 3hr55m. Keep in mind, it's making more stops and going through a LOT of curves around and through hills, over rivers and near the ocean. It's a little slower, but its efficiency is there.
Thank you for this video, which evokes many fond memories from my time when I used to live in New Mexico between 2015-2022, when I regularly used the Rail Runner to commute to the Albuquerque Airport for my flight, before I acquired my drivers' license and moved out. For all its shortcomings the NMRX is in fact one of the most well-managed commuter rail services in the US. Among other things, the stations and trains are always kept in pristine conditions. (And yes, I noticed that they started replacing seat covers around two years ago.) Double tracking would be ideal, but costs aside, I wonder if this would even be possible to begin with, given that sections of the line run through native pueblos. And their schedule used to be much worse -- there used to be only one train each way off-peak until right after I moved out, making it impossible to travel from Albuquerque to Santa Fe mid-day. This has since significantly improved. And the NMRX service is timed to connect to other modes of transport, notably express buses between downtown Albuquerque and the Albuquerque airport, and NM Park and Ride buses between Santa Fe and many smaller towns in New Mexico such as Los Alamos and Espanola. Given the relatively small populations of Albuquerque and Santa Fe (560k and 90k) I would say the NMRX has pretty much served its purpose well. This is all thanks to former Gov Bill Richardson who had the vision to create an intermodal transit system across NM, a rather sparsely populated state. Many other areas in North America with bigger populations will likely never see commuter rail services at all to begin with. Santa Fe is one of the most unique towns in all of North America, and NM the most unique state in terms of culture, food, and everything. Lots of Native American art and architecture. Wonder if you ever had a chance to visit Mille in downtown Santa Fe? It's owned and operated by a former French colleague of mine, and has the best French food I've ever had outside of France.
14:34 "Even with such a small price, this train can't attract customers" So why the hell would they invest in double tracking for this few people? Just because it is double-tracked DOES NOT mean that any more people would take the train. That is train nerd fantasy. They are providing exactly the level of service that 1700 riders warrant.
Just wanted to point out a few things: 1. Yes, service is poor and would be greatly enhanced by more trains, more double tracking, and electrification, but honestly it is impressive that the Rail Runner exists at all. New Mexico has a statewide GDP of $115B, which is 38th/50 and significantly less than wealthier states that don't have any commuter rail options like Arizona ($430B), Kentucky ($245B), Louisiana ($267B), Iowa ($226B), or Ohio ($765B). The fact that Albuquerque and Santa Fe are connected by several trains a day at all is highly impressive when there are zero trains between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, and Columbus and Phoenix both have zero trains ever. 2. The lack of express trains is due to local politics that ultimately stem from the US government's abhorrent treatment of the Native Americans. Basically after colonizing their land and relegating their peoples to specific parcels, a railroad was constructed through because turns out these parcels were in convenient places. Fast forward a few decades and this line was reactivated for commuter rail service. NMRX has tried several times to introduce express trains, but the reservations protest this because it is their stations that would be skipped, and if they have to deal with (on top of the historical baggage of the reservation system in the first place) trains hauling through several times a day without service, then it is all cost for them for zero benefit. It's just politically unsavory to sit in Albuquerque or Santa Fe and argue to offer worse service to these groups located between. 3. This point wasn't raised in the video but I always wondered why they used such huge trainsets (full locos with bilevels) when DMUs like FLIRTs would certainly get the job done for much cheaper, especially given that they only run 2-3 coaches per train which is way underutilizing the MP36PHs. I asked an NMRX rep when I had the chance to get a technical tour of their facilities in 2016, and turns out in 2006 there were zero domestic DMU options with MP36PH plus Bombardier Bilevels as the best domestic option available. Had the service started a decade later, it is likely we would have seen FLIRTs or GTWs.
A different commentor noted that the trains are likely second hand (which shows how cheaply this line was built), not to mention FLIRTs and the like only got permissions to be used in railways a couple years ago as they wouldn't pass the then very strict FRA crash standards (notice that such trains are previously only used in light rail systems).
To add on to #3, it wasn’t until 2018 that lighter trains met FRA safety standards. Waivers were possible before that, although these systems had to go to great lengths to ensure freight and passenger trains didn’t occupy the track at the same time.
Yes, you’re right the three C’s in Ohio don’t have any commuter trains at all or intercity trains. Yes, there’s a Amtrak train that runs from Cincinnati to believe Chicago but it comes out a very odd hour very early in the morning once a day and waiting in the station at that time is not a good idea probably
Electrification is ludacrisly difficult to implement in the US that's why there is so little and the freight railroads always complain if the catenary is a standard height because they can't run double stacked
I think you're being a bit hard on them, particularly in regards to the Santa Fe station, since the renovation and its obvious limitations is probably being done by the city and not by the railroad; I'm sure it will be a lot more user=friendly (and with ticket machines) when it is finished. Also, I don't think of an Albuquerque to Santa Fe service as a "commuter" train; I doubt if many of the people driving between the two cities are really commuters. Even a slow train is better than none at all, though I agree that enough of the line should be double-tracked to allow trains to pass each other at speed. And the price is an incredible bargain; they should probably quadruple it ($10 would still be a bargain!) and use the proceeds to make the improvements you suggest.
@jimpern, the problem with raising the fare to $10.00 is that the people who use it might object to paying that much to use it, especially if said passengers are low-income and/or are also disabled people who might be low income. This is _not_ going to be an easy thing to solve or accomplish, even _if_ the state government's a solidly liberal Democratic one.
The fare used to be much higher -- I believe $9.00 one-way between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. If I recall correctly, they slashed the prices by 75% post-pandemic. The Albuquerque public bus system also became free around that time.
@@CL-qg3vj, that's a great thing to hear about the Albuquerque bus system; there have been a lot of calls by activist organizations to have public transit be free, and this city's public transit agency did that! Pretty amazing.
Something I didn't understand when discussing the scheduling, is what is so complicated about it? Its pretty simple and straightforward, four trains between ABQ and SF in both directions starting at 5:30AM, frequency is not the best, but for $2.50 over that big of a distance, what did one expect really? Same thing with the lack of a canopy for passengers, it likely is exactly the reason why the doors on the train opened so early before departure, because they don't expect people to be sitting out in what can be the VERY hot sun at times until it gets close to the departure time. What's hard to understand about the express service? It makes 4 stops and there is one in either direction during morning and evening rush hour. Complaining that the service is bad everywhere is just going to reinforce car culture. Any service, even if its a bit plucky, is better than no service. And they made the sensible decision to run it down the middle of a highway. The entire system was built for $350 million mostly because they had to build a brand new right of way out of Santa Fe as the curves were much sharper. And for all of this, it was estimated that it would need a subsidy of $10 million annually to remain operational. That's pretty darn cheap for a service that is already dirt cheap. So when passenger numbers return to their Pre Covid level it should be turning a profit. I haven't seen a Simply Railway video in a while and this was my first one, and the attitude here just comes off as completely tone deaf. There are many small cities in Europe that have a comparable quality of service between them and many countries that focused especially on their bright and shiny intercity trains while ignoring secondary services, France, Germany and Spain are all guilty of this.
Even in the UK's famous Settle to Carlisle line, there are not that much frequency of service compared to the London to Manchester multiple daily services...
I'm a fan of the channel but I don't think you appreciate the realities of building a commuter railroad in a sparsely populated area between two smaller cities. The fact that it exists at all is a testament to the organization who, without a doubt, had to operate under a tight budget. And, no, they won't see an increase in ridership if the make the changes you suggest, there are not transport infrastructure on either side to make it appropriate to be without a car. Let's just appreciate the fact that this was built!
New Mexico facts: Spanish explorers and settlers arrived in the 16th century from present-day Mexico, naming the territory Nuevo México in part to evoke the Aztec legend of Aztlán, which in turn evolved into the stories of the Seven Cities of Gold. Isolated by its rugged terrain and the relative dominance of its indigenous people, New Mexico was a peripheral part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Following Mexican independence in 1821, it became an autonomous region of Mexico, albeit increasingly threatened by the centralizing policies of the Mexican government, culminating in the Revolt of 1837. The Acoma and Taos Pueblos are the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country! The Taos Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1450, and the Acoma Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1200 New Mexico's flag is one of only four state flags without the color blue (the other three being California, Alabama, and Maryland). The flag of New Mexico is also one of only two state flags (the other is Oklahoma) to include distinct Native American iconography. It is the sun symbol of the Zia people. Their solar symbol, a red circle with groups of rays pointing in four directions, is painted on ceremonial vases, drawn on the ground around campfires, and used to introduce newborns to the Sun. Four is the sacred number of the Zia and can be found repeated in the four points radiating from the circle
For an American state with a smaller population and economic base, I'm actually impressed that they pulled this off. Americans aren't keen on spending tax dollars on infrastructure unless they think they will use it personally. In the big city and coastal states, yes although paying for upgrades is tough. Good on you, New Mexico. Best of luck.
It was "pulled off" because a handful of bureaucrats essentially told the voters to "piss off... we are in charge and are going to do whatever we want". Literally every vote on the matter was crushed before it could happen because the bureaucrats and their minions knew it would never pass, not by a long shot. So here we are over $1.5 billion dollars pissed away, and multiple tens of millions more lost each and every year, looming interest and balloon payments well into nine-figures... All for a choo-choo that almost no one uses and that takes at least twice as long than simply driving.
I live there and it's very cool I know a lot of tourists ride it when they come here also like business people. They have free for seniors a certain day of week and that's pretty cool, it's used a lot very cool passenger train
@@ivotedforbeanis8819 It is not "used a lot", quite the opposite, ridership trends have been tanking since the beginning and getting worse. It is hemorrhaging money like never before and is literally unsustainable. I would be shocked if it makes it another 10 years or heck even 5 before finally being shut down.
Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed when you filmed this? I think that it is pretty incredible this train exists. Your improvements are unrealistic for a state with only 2.1 million people
New Mexico area size is nearly 122 thousand square miles, while France is 211 thousand square miles. Population of New Mexico is 2.1 million, while France is 68 million... New Mexico is half the area size and one thirtieth the population of France... No more needs to be said...
I have to say, while I get some of the points, most of them are kind of pointless at the point the service currently is. Yes, electrification is good and I’m generally in favor of it, but in this case you’d need to run a lot more trains before it would be worth it, since the entire track is only used for this one service. Acceleration is also not the biggest factor given the small number of intermediate stations. Double tracking the entire line would be nice, but is definitely overkill. Having timed passing loops at stations or long enough sections to pass at speed is all that’s really needed on a line without freight or long distance traffic. You could easily run a 30 minute service on a decently planned single track and that’s really all that’s going to be needed to make the service useful. Single tracked sections are quite normal on spur routes in Europe as well and work fine if they are well designed. Next to my house in Germany is a non electrified service running a 15 minute headway on a single tracked line without problems.
Having lived in Albuquerque (1999-2006) I rode its inaugural run back in 2006, between Albuquerque's Alvarado Transportation Center and Sandoval County/US 550 station. Awesome commuter service with the possibility of great potential. Growing up in South Florida, it made sense to have Tri-Rail Commuter Service between Miami/Dade and Palm Beaches but not in New Mexico. I recall I was shocked to learn the commuter service was going to happen where the population is low. What NM Rail Runner needs all along the way is to encourage transit-oriented communities. I have a love/hate feeling for arid New Mexico. Lively/solace as opposed to emptiness/loneliness. New Mexico Rail Runner saw the light of the day from former Gov. Bill Richardson, a career Democrat who pushed hard to develop the commuter rail line that now stretches from Belen and Albuquerque to Santa Fe. However, in a Wikipedia article (source unknown), "The concept of passenger rail serving the Central New Mexico corridor had been discussed for decades, but it wasn't until August 2003, when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced that his administration was going to pursue the implementation of commuter rail service, that a serious effort got underway." How the governor made it possible up in the Roundhouse, the capitol in Santa Fe, without public inputs and oversights baffled me. I can understand I-25 "Pan-America Highway" has a history of accidents and congestion in peak hours can get that bad. Though I voted for Richardson, in my opinion, it was a way to win voters' confidence in his place as New Mexico Governorship.
Woah, a ticket is only $2.50?! That's a great price for the distance! Plus the livery looks so nice edit: got a little farther in the video and I'm completely on board with the fact that this service is missing the mark over and over again. They own the ROW, so this can be fixed, but WOW is that a bummer.
The Bummer is the REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR THAT WORKED TO SHUT IT DOWN. AND THE REPUBLIDANS IN WASHINGTON THAT WANT THE CHIEF OFF TOO. AND THE BNSF TRACK RIPPED UP.
One of the most important aspects of any commuter rail system, more important than the actual commuter line itself, is the ability to simply and quickly get to a specific location in the destination city after arriving at the terminus point. It's useless to get anywhere if, for example, it then takes another hour waiting for a bus to arrive and do a slow crawl somewhere. Just about every successful commuter train will enable connecting to a subway or light rail of some kind.
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 But does Greyhound still serve Santa Fe? The answer is believe it or not, NO... I know its hard for many to comprehend, especially Europeans, Greyhound the number one passenger bus service nationwide does NOT serve every town and city in America... Not enough business, the bus depot closes...
It seems it it would be better if the passing could be done at speed, or have the passing loops integrated with the stations, where the trains would be stopped anyway.
Most, if not all of the intermediate stations between Santa Fe and Belen have two tracks, one main and one siding. You can examine the schedules to discover where scheduled meets are expected. The problem is with location of station stop points. If the location of every siding (station to receive or discharge passengers notwithstanding) is not equidistant, dwell time kills efficiency. Eliminating dwell time is critical to efficiency.
I often see you writing political troll comments on train videos. We need to stop viewing passenger rail as a partisan issue. We need to convince people across all ideologies to get on board.
I remember that you went to Santa Fe to film this quite a while ago. I was there just a week ago and they have finished refurbishment on the station. I did not go inside but it looks nice.
These are not two "major" cities (ABQ is the 32nd largest city in the U.S.) and this is a sparsely populated area to begin with. Given what they have to work with I think they did a good, if not great, job.
I can't think of another area that does better with a lesser population density. Even Maine's Downeaster with Amtrak locomotives and rolling stock has a larger density when you also include Massachusetts and New Hampshire...
New Mexico has a population of only about 2 million and that population is very spread out, which means there will be low ridership and low taxpayer funding, so new trains, electrification, double tracking, and ticket machines are a distant dream for New Mexicans. ALSO this video is obviously somewhat old, seeing as there are old seats in the cars, and Santa Fe Plaza Station is shown under construction. the station building in Santa Fe has been nicely finished since then, and all cars have received leather seats. BNSF owned the line until recently so double tracking was out of the question until now.
@amandajasonmathews1671, I feel for the people of New Mexico (and for you if you're a New Mexican), but as I said above just now today, that's no excuse for the (Democratic) state government for not raising money to improve Rail Runner by imposing a sales tax, asking for aid from the federal government to improve said train, or issue savings bonds that can raise money to fund said improvments to Rail Runner ( _nobody_ in North America should be using DMU's to haul people locally, at all.)
@@Neville60001 the Democrat state government would probably like to be elected so they aren't going to be raising taxes especially the sales tax to support a lightly used service. And electrifying the service, most electricity in NM is either coal or natural gas with coal still being the major source.
@@emilkarpo, does anybody not know how to build nuclear reactors or solar power plants in New Mexico? Most of this state's power problems would be solved right then and there (oh yeah, one other thing about nuclear power: _please_ *_don't_* give me the bullshit about it being dangerous, it can be made to be safe as anything, just ask Thibeaut about how his county's doing using nuclear power, and how safe it can be made [hint: the French haven't had a meltdown at _any_ of their nuclear reactors, at all.])
@@Neville60001 Currently Biden Admin. wants to make NM a renewable energy hub and there's a wind/solar plant being built that'll produce 5 Gigawatts with 500 miles of high tension to deliver it to surrounding states. (if you don't know 1 Gigawatt can power about 1 million homes).
@mirzaahmed6589, are you sure about that? What about the (foreign) visitors to New Mexico that _don't_ want to drive everywhere (and who also probably don't have a driver's license because they don't drive back home)?
@@Neville60001 Problem is foreign visitors are a drop in the bucket and New Mexico isn't exactly a major foreign tourist destination. The crowd that visits Santa Fe are NOT candidates for public transit.
Exactly, he doesn’t realize that New Mexico, particularly suburban areas, are spread out, you need to drive to the station or if you are lucky, get a bus to the station. Why would someone, for example a tourist, decide to drive to a station, board a train, and get off at another station, when they can just drive it? This isn’t LA traffic, you can usually get to your destination quicker or in the same amount of time by car.
@@emilkarpo I am a tourist that’ll visit in Santa Fe for the first time and I’m going to take the train because I don’t enjoy hiring a car alone. Anyway, I heard at least some of the Santa Fe’s walkable and I like exploring and seeing the art and some museums and craft shop and I Enjoy walking.
YES, that's what I've noticed most about it, usually the area around most stations have terrible land use (with the exception of maybe SF depot and downtown ABQ). In North ABQ I've figured out a bike route to get to the station near there and I could see it as manageable, but there's nothing around the station so why would most people want to be there?
Single-track is not unknown in Europe, you know! We were surprised to find that the line between Stockholm and Oslo - two capital cities - was single-track most of the way! And yes, the trains were late....
I went to college in a town called Socorro, which is about an hour south of Albuquerque. The railrunner doesn't go that far south, but there is a connecting bus. For me it was the only way to go into the city without driving, and I was super thankful for it. Because of the cheap cost and the student discount I got, it was an incredibly good deal for a college student. I really love this service, in spite of its flaws.
People on New Mexico are fairly easy going and laid back. Things like trains at 110 mph and dual track over single track are just not important so enjoy the ride for $2.50 round trip it’s a great bargain and is what it is.
The music city star in nashville tn makes this thing look like a swiss watch railroad Id take this over what us Tennesseans have for a sad commuter service
I have to drop my late husband's car off in ABQ for some repair work, and I live in Los Alamos, NM. I have never taken the Rail Runner and was considering using it to get to at least Santa Fe (bus from there) and not have to rent a car because I have a 2nd car at home. It has been complicated for me to figure out how to use it and catch a bus the rest of the way home given the time I need to drop off my car. I was driving southbound on I-25 one time and watched a massive vehicle collision in the northbound lane, and a car ran off the road, peeling up a barrier as it went, then hit the Rail Runner tracks, and bounced backwards. Super scary accident and I don't know if the people were okay. A ton of energy as the car was probably doing 85 mph. Lots of cars were stopping on the other side, and traffic was such on our side that it didn't seem safe to stop. We called 911, since we just watched the accident happen and I doubt anyone called yet. I have lived in NM for 24 years, and that is my extent of interaction with the Rail Runner. In my opinion, the problem is the rest of NM lacks decent public transport. There are large expanses and not a lot of people. So, timing tends to be bad. There is a bus service that goes from Santa Fe to Los Alamos, but none of the times are aligned properly for when I would get there. Everything is really set up for commuters and, in the Los Alamos area, for people commuting to LANL. I have to be in ABQ at 8:30 am to drop off my car. But, I cannot get back home until at least 3:30 pm because it is too late to catch the right bus connection as the Labbies go earlier from Santa Fe. It is normally a 1 hr 45 min drive. This is NM, though, and it is really hard to get anyone to do anything. So, I think it is pretty much a miracle that the rail service happened, even if it is all screwed up. The corridor passes through Pueblo land. I don't know if it would have even been possible to do the things you suggested. NM might appear to have a ton of space, but I would guess it is along I-25 for a great distance for potential reasons unrelated to geography.
People who live in Santa Fe (I don't) told us that no rail station at the Albuquerque Airport (ABQ) was planned because the Albuquerque taxi/limo owners didn't want the competition. Since Santa Fe is one of the few (only?) state capital cities without a moderate sized or larger airport, it would make sense that a direct connection from Santa Fe to ABQ would greatly increase ridership.
That is pretty silly to not run a commuter train to the airport. That was first thing Denver did when they built the RTD commuter rail, the first commuter line went straight to the airport. Of course the light rail had been running for 22 years at that point while artfully not going to the airport haha. But generally in Denver, the commuter rail is awesome in the places where it does run (100% electrified EMUs, 15min frequency during off peak, more frequent during peak) and the light rail is slow and pathetic.
Great video, even if it wasn't positive. I really appreciate it when people who give criticism are actually constructive and present specific solutions (which you have). Unfortunately, I think that most of the problems here boil down to lack of sufficient resources available. Hopefully in the future they will get the resources to implement some of your solutions. When I visit New Mexico (it's on my list!), I will check out this train as a tourist attraction!
Im not sure what you expected or if you were just in a crap mood but they are doing a pretty good job for what they have. Whining about why isn’t it electric or why do they have to over federal speed laws etc is beyond their control. I’m sure the people there are happy to have access to anything remotely like this especially at such a cheap price
How are they doing a "good job"? How exactly is it "cheap"? The whole project is over one billion dollars in the hole... And every ticket is subsidized by the taxpayer ~$110
Most of the traffic is between Santa Fe and Albuquerque so all trains don't need to service Belen. More frequencies are possible by turning short at Albuquerque.
You're coming from a good place but I think your review is too harsh. NM is a small, poor state, and they are clearly trying to do something really cool here. The grey weather didn't help because this is one of the most scenic parts of the USA which ironically gets more sunshine than anywhere else! Thanks for checking this out.
Way too harsh, delusional too. It’s cool that any sort of commuter rail exists but instead of enjoying what this relatively poor state has done, he bashes it and suggests all these big extravagant delusional ideas that are unrealistic for a state this size.
Some observations: It's not really fair to harshly judge a station that's in the middle of a major renovation, even if it's behind schedule. I agree that the livery is clever, unique, and outstanding. Beep-beep! South is not always toward Albuquerque, as the line extends south of ABQ to Belen. You're overstating the importance of aerodynamics to a push-pull consist. This isn't HSR. The major problem with most US rail transit is low frequency but, given our history of paving over rail lines, it's a bloody miracle that New Mexico even HAS a commuter rail line! Our approach is often to just get the darn thing started, allow TOD to develop around stations, and then upgrade frequency and speed while adding a few infill stations. This takes time (for example, DC's Metrorail officially opened for business in 1976 but its first infill station didn't open until 2004).
You offer some valid criticisms, but you also omit some important points. First, the population of Santa Fe is about 88,000 and the population of ABQ is about 560,000. Neither are booming metropolises. Let's assume that a third of the people in Santa Fe are in the workforce (about 30K), how many of them actually have jobs in ABQ that would require them to commute daily? Very few. If you already live in ABQ, there would likely be very few job opportunities for you in Santa Fe (one-sixth the size) that would require you to commute. Given those numbers, 1,700 rides per day seems reasonable to me. One thing that NMRX could have done is run the route to stop at the ABQ airport instead of having it stop 4.5 miles away from the terminal (by car). That may have driven up ridership a tad for people flying into the state wanting to do business at the state capital. It may be better to think of NMRX as an short intercity or regional railroad and not as a commuter railroad.
11:39 Same with the system here in Austin - they scraped the little money they had together and started a commuter line on about 30ish miles of track, but all single track. Now that the system is experiencing growth, they are beginning to double track. The problem is, the double tracking is causing HUGE delays and there are even weeks where they totally _suspend_ service which I just find mind blowing. If you rely on the train to go to work or school, you're just SOL. It was designed bad from the start.
CapMetro used a abandoned railroad line from downtown to a northwest outer suburb, but didn't bridge across the Colorado River to serve the south side of the city... Very poor planning... A proper commuter railroad should serve downtown in at least two directions with one line, if not more directions and lines...
Ive used the RailRunner with some frequency and enjoy it. With much of Santa Fe being easily walkable, I no longer rent a car at ABQ airport... just take the RailRunner and walk around town... beep, beep❤
That’s what I plan to do! I’ve never seen Santa Fe and I don’t like to rent a car in a strange area I’m traveling alone. So plan next year to fly to Albuquerque and I read there’s a bus from the airport to the train station and then I just walk around Santa Fe and see the beautiful museums and art, etc. all by walking :) !
79mph top speeds are normal across North America for most companies other than Amtrak. To my knowledge, the only commuter trains that regularly exceed that speed are those of MARC.
I believe SEPTA can operate at 125mph on some lines and NJT can operate at 125mph when on NEC tracks. LIRR used to operate at 100mph, but they reduced their line speed to 80mph a couple decades ago.
A lot of nitpicking in this piece that isn't justified. Not everyone is commuting from Albuquerque to Santa Fe or vice versa. This really isn't commuter rail, it is regional rail. People ride for all kinds of reasons. In fact, with remote work and telework, the days of the guy with the briefcase catching the 8:15 into the city and the 5:15 home is pretty much over. Nobody buys tickets from a ticket window anymore, everyone has a smart phone and buys tickets on line. This is not a high speed rail line and isn't intended to be. Yes, 110 would be nice, but the point isn't to be faster than the car. As fast is just fine. A double track railroad would be very expensive to maintain and simply wouldn't be economically sustainable. The very minor inconvenience of passing another train isn't something anyone is going to care about. This is a very useful and used service and provides cost effective transportation to the people of New Mexico. It is a blessing to those who do not have a car and need to get to work or visit family. This nit picking hit piece just isn't realistic or justified.
11:44 It certainly is bad UNLESS you make your schedule in a way that allows for good operation and make sure your trains go on time, then you can operate even on single track without delays (Example: Uetlibergbahn in Zurich)
@jonathangat4765, not all public transportation's like New York or Chicago, and it has to factor in the demands of the people who drive as well as the people who take public transit. Building electric railways isn't the easy thing the OP of this video thinks it is (and I say this as a person who supports the building of electric commuter railways, especially here in Southern Ontario [in particular the area near Toronto, where I live that's only just narrowly got a promise of GO-Government of Ontario-Transit's rail system being slated to be electrified.])
@@Neville60001 to be fair, the creator of this video is from France, where most of the network is electrified. With that context, electrifying this single relatively short, flat line probably seems like it should be fairly easy
Dude cmon the Rail Runner is definitely not what you think, it's pretty relaxing and it operates how it should but I do think that it does need a 2 track line but other than that I've had no problems on it
Many rebuttals: 1. It would make no sense to build temporary shelters for them to be torn down, they were actively working on renovations, let them work on that rather than a shelter that will be torn down once it’s complete. 2. A simple search, which you are obviously capable of, will tell you to board the train and wait for a ticket agent. 3. Have you spoken to the conductors and engineers? Well I have, in their current setup they work a minimum of 44 hours a week, and Herzog is struggling to find more conductors. They have recently added more trains permanently, removing the “T” next to many route numbers. Along with that, when 33 people ride a system that could be made in the same distance by car, there isn’t much point to add more trains. 4. This isn’t a tourist train, many people take this to work or school, a vending machine would not do much good, go out in ABQ or Santa Fe and support a small business or local food joint. 5. There is usually no need for double track on this route, there are double tracks where they pass each other, like Montano or Downtown Berna. Assuming trains can stay on time, there should be no problem. Amtrak and other freight trains can hold for NMRX to pass. It is indeed not always like that, you do not seem to realize how hard it already was to get the state congress to pass funding for this, it’ll take something rather than nothing. 6. The speed restriction is something that the state decided not to invest the equipment into, nothing Herzog can do about it at this point. 7. If it’s too slow for you, rent a car, oh wait that’s expensive. Be grateful you are getting for Point A to B. 8. New Mexico is poor, your expectations are delusional for a state this poor. 9. Tell Republicans in Congress to help fund public transportation, the poor state of New Mexico cannot alone. You complain a lot. Otherwise nice shots in the video.
Man it's a shed in a lay-by, New Mexico isn't poorer than Ukraine who manage to run better services than this out of bombed out buildings. I'd be less precious about the objectively terrible state of US rail and start moaning at people who can do something about it, not random trip reviewers!
@@prostakukI’m not moaning or bashing him, I’m simply giving my thoughts, I am also pointing out that blaming the Rail Runner isn’t great either, blame government officials who can fund these projects, so it’s not Rail Runners fault, it’s a greater issue that needs to be addressed.
Given New Mexico's population Density, not surprising about the ridership numbers. I'd like to know how many people make that drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque on I-25? I was in NM last month and drove I-25 from Las Cruces to Santa Fe and let me tell you, had I'd known about this commuter train, I would have taken it in Santa Fe. The $5:00 for a round trip, you absolutely can't beat that price driving it... I-25 is boring and you have to contend with the trucking traffic as well, as they pull into the left lane to pass a slower truck. And that is not done quickly most of the time, you end up stuck behind a rolling gauntlet of two trucks in both travel lanes ( and long line of cars) until the passing truck FINALLY pulls in front of the slower truck, which can take miles to achieve. So... it has some "warts" to contend with, but between the low fare and much less aggravation than driving I-25, I think it's winner. If they could do it, extending it down I-25 to Las Cruces would be nice, but New Mexico is a poor state.. low population density and not much industry to support employment and generate tax revenues. I think they did a decent enough job with what they had available to spend. New Mexico is always working on I-10 to try and maintain it , it gets pretty beat up from the amount of heavy big rigs trans-versing through NM on their way Eastward. I imaging a lot of their budget is eaten up by the I-25 repairs.
You can't get your bike off the Amtrak train, so I have to take the Rail Runner back to Santa Fe. It gets there almost at dark, so it is a 20 mile bike ride in the dark to the campground. Then it is a whole day getting to Amtrak and waiting, since there are almost no weekend trains. All things considered, it is better than nothing. I mean, most places don't even give you an option of a train in the first place.
09:40-10:18 the Road Runner beep in Europe its used as the train length indicator for ÖBB Baureihe 1016-1216 DB MRCE Dispolok Baureihe 182 Eurosprinter locomotives. Which makes New Mexico the other user of the Taurus Roadrunner beep for train length indicator. Railrunner needs to be run like Northeast United States commuter rail which are Boston New York MTA and NJ Transit electric territory. Stadler factory is in neighbouring Utah which is part of the four corner States Arizona Colorado New Mexico
@EpicThe112, the state may not have the monies needed to carry out widescale electrification of this commuter service (and they may have to think about how this will fit wwith the freight train network); of course, as I said just now, the state could raise the taxes and use said tax monies to pay for electrifiying everything.
Railroads without cab signaling are limited to 79 mph in the US. Cab signaling is expensive and is only used in the northeast and one Los Angeles area line. Also, maintaining tracks at FRA Class 6 (110 mph) is much more expensive than maintaining them for Class 4 (80 mph). If signaling prevents trains from going more than 79 mph, there isn't a point in upgrading the tracks.
Some concerns brought up in this video are valid, but the main thing to consider is that most US commuter rail lines operate only as a _service_ over mostly existing trackage, not as companies who build and manage their own infrastructure. As a result, many "issues" with the service are completely out of their control, like the routing (with the exception of the freeway median section), the lack of electrification, and the speed limit (which is based on many other factors in addition to the trains' maximum speed and the straightness of the track as determined by US federal regulations). In general, I would say that it's actually quite amazing that this service exists, because it allows the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area to have much better regional rail transit than almost any metropolitan area of its size in the US. Trust me when I say that multiple other US cities are far, far worse in their implementations of commuter rail...
Hi Tibault, I actually rode this very trip in 2014 with my grandparents. We traveled from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and then turned around the same day. I recall it being fairly okay except a group of elderly women being very loud which annoyed both of my grandparents and a fair amount of dark exhaust visible from the carriage. Seems as though nothing has changed overall.
3:50 that second coach, the one with the intense paint job, is an old P72 coach from the Long Island Railroad. They were built in the 1950s and retired between 1998 and 2000, they were replaced by the double decker coaches that you reviewed in an earlier video. I remember them from when I was growing up, they were very tired looking, only rode them once in December of 1998.
Just to be clear about the single tracking issue, when the railroad was finished between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The section between the interstate was built completely new, and doing so they kept the right-of-way ready for double tracking when it came to it. It was a, (though costly in some sections) good future proofing measure they have. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the windy way into Santa Fe proper. That section pushes the heavy diesel locos to their limits with how sudden the grades are, and since it winds through the suburbs they cannot be doubled. Getting permits for such a project would raise hell in those neighborhoods, mostly rich folk who will block any attempt.
Thanks for the video. I just went on the Rail Runner a few months ago, and I didn't have that great of an experience either. Hopefully they'll improve eventually.
Well they are closing in on 20 years of operation so it's unlikely things will get better at this point. New Mexico is not a booming state like its neighbors Arizona and Texas, the money just isn't there.
Ok, separate but somewhat related issue to southwest US passenger rail: there are NO direct trains from Albuquerque to Denver! Both Rail Runner and Amtrack could chime in to build a route between two major US cities. It takes obscenely long time to travel via train between the two cities. Because there are no direct routes, you have to travel all the way to Chicago first, then from Chicago to Denver. Insanity.
I thought Amtrak has a bus service that connects Raton or maybe Trinidad to go up the front range to Denver passing Pueblo and Col. Springs etc. But maybe not? It's certainly not a train all the way, but at least would get you there in the same day.
Ok, yeah. Rail Runner doesn't measure up against Europe, who's been doing commuter rail the right way for what...50 years?? But give us yanks a break, we're babies in the train game. This is damn impressive, *especially* for such a low-population region. Gotta start somewhere right?? Give it time, I think this service will improve and become properly useful. Just my £0.02
I understand your frustration with this line, but we have to realize that the US, for the most part, are newbies to the whole concept of rail commute and have a lot to learn. Even some of the commuter trains in Los Angles (where I live) is single track and greater L.A. have some 20 million people.
Europeans have difficulty contemplating America's huge size and less population density. Albuquerque is only a city of around a half million in a desert to mountainous area closer to the Sahara desert than the rolling hills of France with nearly half of France's 68 million population within a hundred mile radius of Paris... New Mexico is 2 million, not 68 million... Truth is considering this is New Mexico, this is New Mexico's densest corridor, barely 600 thousand, with 500 thousand of that in Albuquerque...
I know. I live I L.A. and occasionally talk to people from Europe who plans to go from X to Y to Z attractions in one day not understanding it might be a 2 -3 hours drive between each, depending on traffic. @@ronclark9724
6:36 It is common for smaller software publishers/developers to only make their apps available in a limited number of countries’ app stores. This is particularly true where Europe is involved; companies don’t want to deal with the time and expense of ensuring that they don’t violate GDPR, especially when they don’t expect many EU customers.
We rode the Rail Runner in the fall of 2021 to and from a three night stay in Santa Fe on a trip via Amtrak to Albuquerque. We appreciated being able to use it, but agree that the lack of frequency is a significant hinderance to its usefulness. For example, we tried to plan a trip south of Albuquerque to visit the restored Belen Harvey House, but couldn't make that work with the schedules.
If I had any say in the New Mexico Railrunner, I would include a nostalgic announcement jingle like a few notes of their state song "O Fair New Mexico"!
A few things... Double tracking would double your construction costs as well as your annual maintenance costs. It would be hard to justify the millions of dollars you would be spending annually to save a few minutes passing trains in the siding. Electrifying the railroad makes no sense, as it would probably quadruple your original costs. I am sure the locals wouldn't be too happy with thousands of poles, wires, etc. mucking up that beautiful New Mexico landscape. Many passenger cars and locomotives do not do well at higher speeds. Cars may rock, hunt, or bounce enough to throw passengers around when they are walking around the cars. Track at speeds higher than 79 mph must be kept in excellent condition and under constant scrutiny. Passenger cars and locomotives would also be held to a much higher standard, which would be costly. Most high-speed trains were built for high speeds as well as the track. This isn't New York or California. New Mexico is pretty boring, and I am pretty sure even if the train was going 50 mph, nobody would care. It's not like anyone is in a hurry to get anywhere. I think many people ride this train for fun and not to get from point A to point B. I am actually surprised this train is still running considering it has been a money pit and will always operate in the red.
Thanks for the honesty. I used Rail Runner from ABQ to SF for appointments at CStV during active treatment. Scheduling was/remains befuddling, and line underused (however, I enjoyed the ride!)
Way too hard on this operation... this isn't France, it's New Mexico, before this train existed no one here rode trains (Southwest Chief is so minor to be almost irrelevant to the discussion) and if you think this is bad I could give you a long list of much worse in the US (ie all rush hour service in peak direction only, 3-4 trains a day). Crazy to expect electrification and all double tracking and super frequent schedules. Railrunner really is more of an intercity line between the two key cities in the state than your typical commuter line, so it just needs a number of trains throughout the day. Santa Fe is also a tiny city, it just happens to be the State capital and culturally significant so its quite remarkable a train service to it even exists in the US. The Santa Fe station is being renovated too and they bring the trains deep into the city versus the easy path of terminating them further south outside the city center which a lot of operations elsewhere would have done, there's historic buildings directly north of the current SF terminus.
I'll list the worse American rail services: 1. ACE (by far the worst of all!) 2. Music City Star 3. Northstar 4. Sunrail 5. Sounder north line 6. Metra Heritage Corridor 7. Metra NW line Bonus: West Coast Express in Vancouver/Abbotsford (which is in Canada, not the USA) P.s.: "New Mexico" is not a country, so it doesn't make sense to compare with a real country like France. Since New Mexico is a subnational territory within a country, a more accurate comparison is Australia's Northern Territory (which has no regional rail).
So I'm not exactly sure where it starts but some of the land filmed was near Santo Domingo pueblo (Kewa station), and you can't film or photograph without permission. They sometimes announce it on the train, sometimes they don't. I rode the RR to middle school for a year, then highschool for 3 years. Grew up right between SD and Cochiti. Just wanted to let you know just in case you werent aware or get complaints.
@@happyburger23 but its the poorest state in the richest country on earth, its just down to the fact that the US sucks at infrastructure that isnt for cars
@@happyburger23, that's not an excuse; the state government can ask for federal government aid in improving the Rail Runner service, or it can geneate a sales tax, the proceeds of which would go to funding said improvements (the people would and will grumble about said tax, but they'd have to accept it as part of the cost of running and upgrading things like this commuter service.)
110 mph service would not onlyrequire not cab signaling, automatic train stop or ATC/PTC but a new set of locomotives and coaches. The locos are good for 102 mph and the bi-level cars 93 mph.
Albuquerquean here. The main problem with that rail system is that there really is only one stop that has good public transit access and that is the Downtown ABQ stop where you can access the ART and the ART really only gets around downtown, nob hill, and uptown. Most of the stops will leave you stranded. Now, if you have a bike you can get around pretty well, but even that is limiting. What I’ve been hoping is that ABQ and Santa Fe would beef up their public transit, but work on that has been slow and housing continues to focused on sprawl rather than density. I believe regular local Commenters are key to any sustainable public transit and right now they need to have a car to conveniently get around the city. That other stuff sounds cool, but I’d still not ride it because what am I going to do when I get to Santa Fe without a vehicle?
NM is about the same size as Germany but 1/40th the population -- that exemplifies why rail is so hard to do in the US compared to Europe. and pretty sure there's long been service from SF to Albuquerque -- that's why there's an old passenger station. it would have had to share tracks with freight trains, and been slow on old track that may have been narrow gauge routes originally. also i think i've seen old pictures that some of the routes feeding the station originally street ran, which may have to do with them now being a bit roundabout.
Today it costs $9.00 for a day pass between ABQ and SF That riders trip is taxpayer subsidized $110 just to cover basic operating cost Currently it takes 1 hour and 42 minutes for a commuter to go from the downtown station to Santa Fe Plus you still have the time/cost needed to get to/from the station on each end Using "public transit" to get from my home in the foothills of Albuquerque to the Santa Fe Plaza it would take ~4 hours using a combination of the train, busses, and walking about 3 miles. Also the busses and stations are filled with vagrants, druggies, and criminals so that adds to the fun. The busses are so bad the drivers sit inside plexiglass enclosures to try and keep them from being assaulted... they do not work. Using just the train and POV for the same trip would take 2 hours and 30 minutes, using my POV to get to downtown, walk to the station, train to SF, then walk another mile to the plaza. Also the downtown area is over run with vagrants, drug use, and crime so I would have to deal with that plus the high likelihood of my vehicle being broken into. Meanwhile I can drive from my home in the foothills of Albuquerque to the Santa Fe Plaza in just 55 minutes. All in the comfort, safety, and privacy of my own vehicle. Plus I can also change my plans in an instant since I do not have to be limited to government schedules.
When I took the Chief from Santa Fe to Chicago about 7 years ago, you actually started by taking an Amtrak-chartered taxi from SF to Lamy to meet the train. (There is no (or wasn't) direct Amtrak service to SF.) Does the tourist RR that you mentioned interface at all with the Amtrak schedule to allow you to get there by rail at least some of the time?
I liked the "meep meep" Road Runner sound. It's just a quirky, fun thing to create a nice mood so I wouldn't call it "useless". That was an unfair criticism.
@@SimplyRailway Considering the service provided plenty of seats on the train you took, one can make the argument the state did more than enough to satisfy demand...
Thank you for this video which I thoroughly enjoyed. The rolling stock is great, and clearly very well maintained. Increased frequencies would be a good idea, but by European standards the fares are incredibly low, and do not generate sufficient income to increase either the frequency or justify doubling parts of the route. However, I really like the Rail Runner !
Instead of completely double-tracking, they could add a lengthy pass track section or two.A couple of ten-mile passing segments might do the trick. Just depends on the budget.
They are only allowed a certain speed as it's restricted by PTC NMRX is equipped with PTC. They also sometimes don't have the right of way there's a lot more to it then just running up and down the corridor. Plus we can't afford some of the things as it's about 100 miles of track and its hard with the cost of everything.
Excellent review my friend, btw, you should also try the Skyrail Tourist Train sometime, it departs from the same station as the Railrunner and takes you out on a journey through the desert like no other ;) I highly recommended it, I'd love to see your review of it
Just off the top of my head without doing any research, I wonder what the feasibility of building an extension straight to Albuquerque's airport and having a station there. I'm sure it's been looked into it. Maybe people around here already have pros/cons and know the constraints. But it is significantly cheaper to fly and more flight options into Albuquerque over Santa Fe.
Under US regulation, rail over 79 MPH requires in-cab signaling, automatic train stop, or automatic train control. I guess they decided the more advanced signaling wasn't in the budget when they were constructing the line.
That’s normal regulation globally tho
@@qjtvaddict no, that's specifically USA. There's plenty of European countries where in-cab signalling is only required above 200 km/h. Automated Train Stop is pretty standard though, indeed.
I didn't know this. Thanks :-)
@1NatanoDev Ignorance fought, thanks!
I recognized that magic number of 79 as being the result of this rule, but in the end it just proves they built this system as cheaply as possible, and probably missed the opportunity to get more people to use it.
I’m just impressed that New Mexico with a population density of just 6.7 people square kilometer (compared to France’s 117) built a new commuter rail line! It is not a wealthy state, either. I’d ride it just to hear the doors closing. Good work New Mexico!
The criticisms in the video certainly have some validity, but what New Mexico did is better than nothing. Thanks for your posting trip.
And specially better since it’s only 2.50 for 65 miles.
The whole thing was a political vanity project by a Democrat party Governor who had higher ambitions. LOL it even operates with non-Union crews or agreement covered works who aren't members of real railroad unions ie carpenters union and the like. Low Ball all the way.
@@emilkarpo prefer that to the union ran money pit like the MTA. Projects run 10 years longer and 50 billion overbudget, and when they are done its broken and need repairs. Like the new LIRR Penn Station...
You're right, it's better than nothing. :-)
If you're going to do something, do it well.
What's interesting is that according to City Nerd, the RailRunner between ABQ and SFNM is nonetheless one of the ten most frequent train services in the US between two city pairs outside of metropolitan regions.
Which is pretty sad, no?
@@davieee1168 It runs way more than twice a day, even on weekends.
@@davieee1168by reading public train timetables
Well it is the whiny CityNerd that said that.
Something to keep in mind is that this is New Mexico we are talking about here, not the rich Northeast. And New Mexico…isn’t known for being rich. So for what they were able to do, it still gets the job done and the scenery is beautiful. Not to mention the fare is a steal considering the distance! Love the livery! But I especially love how each station has their own unique icon design to represent each community’s identity like how Sandoval County/US 550 has grapes to symbolize the vineyards and winemakers in the area, Montaño having a cottonwood leaf which is a tree native to the region, or Sandia Pueblo having a hummingbird because it’s a bird important to the Sandia people.
Some facts about the roadrunner: On cool desert nights, roadrunners enter a state of torpor, allowing their body temperature to drop to conserve their energy. To recover from their cold night of slumber, roadrunners spend the morning lying out in the sunlight. Since they can run at speeds over 15 mph and most of their prey is on the ground, roadrunners don’t have much of a reason to fly. On those occasions when they need to escape a predator, reach a branch, or catch a flying insect, roadrunners will fly for short distances, usually only lasting for a few seconds.
The REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR that took over worked to kill it.
RUMOUR has it that the stations have different motifs so illiterate riders know at which stop to de-train.
"Something to keep in mind is that this is New Mexico we are talking about here, not the rich Northeast. And New Mexico…isn’t known for being rich"
-Yet a handful of bureaucrats managed to rip from those poor people over 1.5 billion dollars to create this boondoggle
-And they did it without a single vote... In fact they crushed every attempt to put it to a vote
-Why you ask... Because they new taxpayers didnt want it
"So for what they were able to do, it still gets the job done"
-A cart pulled by a donkey could get the job done
-In fact thats exactly how it was done for generations
"and the scenery is beautiful"
-It travels through the armpit of the state
-Some of the ugliest parts of the state are along it's path
" Not to mention the fare is a steal considering the distance!"
-That's because the fare is subsidized by the taxpayer ~$150 for literally each and every passenger
-That family in the video, two adults & two kids... The taxpayer was forced to pay $600 for their ride
-And the $600 only applies to the base operating cost
Reptiles use those same skills except for the flight.
I have been riding the RailRunner for years. Let me explain a few things. The ridership was low due to the time of day and the fact that many state workers are still working from home. The morning and evening commuter trains have a LOT more people and it can be challenging to find a good seat on the morning train. Ticket prices were 75% off when you rode it. That ticket would cost you $10 today. When the Railrunner was built, ALL the tracks were owned by BNSF. The tracks were later bought by the State and they took over dispatch so they could prioritize commuter trains.
I was gonna say, you ride in the morning or evening and it's packed. I rode every day to attend highschool (New Mexico School For the Arts which btw is now at the end of the track in SF) and some mornings I wouldn't be able to sit it was so packed.
The beauty of the current system is you can Easily run the trains with an upgraded signalling system at 100mph. You can expand the trains to 12 coaches. You can run them at 10 min intervals. I do agree make the fare super cheap and introduce a SMARTCARD and place ALL Transit in the state on 1 Fare. Make it super cheap and place all the government workers and students and seniors on super cheap or free and that's how you build ridership.
"The ridership was low due to the time of day and the fact that many state workers are still working from home"
-The ridership is low (and continues to shrink) due to the fact that it takes about twice as long to ride the train than it does to simply drive.
"The morning and evening commuter trains have a LOT more people and it can be challenging to find a good seat on the morning train"
-They have actually been removing cars because the ridership continues to crash
-These days they typically only run with one, maybe two cars and the cab car
-It is not at all unusual to have just a handful of riders per car, or even the entire car to yourself
"That ticket would cost you $10 today"
-After deducting the ticket fare, it costs the taxpayer ~$150 dollars per rider just in base operating costs (fuel/crew)
-Which is intentionally deceiving by the state because they count each rider only one way when over 99% are out & back
-Meaning most riders actually count as two, one out, then another back
-So one ABQ commuter riding to SF for work weekdays is actually costing the taxpayer $3,000 per month
-Or $36,000 per year... You could by that person a car plus pay for their gas and it would actually save taxpayer money
"When the Railrunner was built, ALL the tracks were owned by BNSF. The tracks were later bought by the State and they took over dispatch so they could prioritize commuter trains"
-False, that deal fell through about a decade ago because costs had already ballooned to ~4x the original budget
-Just like everything else the government touches
As someone who lived in Southern NM for almost 8 years there is a lot of nuance and context missing from this review of the Rail Runner service. NM is a very poor state with little industry nor much of a private sector and lots of government support and government jobs. When you live there, you learn that most places would half-ass something, but NM quarter-asses it because that is how terrible funding is. So yeah, they likely got used second hand rolling stock that was retired from elsewhere to be a cheap and cost effective as possible. What really got me riled was with most of the wealth concentrated in Santa Fe/Los Alamos and parts of ABQ while the entire southern half of the state lost at everything. I would have loved train service from Las Cruces up to ABQ and then onto Santa Fe. I lived two blocks from the old train station which was no longer in use for passenger rail. It would have been such a smart idea, but the reason it only runs mainly from Belen to ABQ and Santa Fe is there are more people [and money] in those areas. Las Cruces, despite being the second largest city in the state, gets much less support at the state level due to being in the south and not having enough clout up in the state capital. Hell, I wanted train service from Las Cruces to El Paso and that is a pipe dream as well. The number of times I drove to and from the El Paso airport and the sheer number of people who commute on that part of I-10 is immense.
Add in the terrible urban planning and design of most of these areas, the desire to be 'close' to the desert, the sheer car dependency and again that poor urban planning it creates an entire state population who swear by driving their vehicles everywhere. So, I'd still run into the problem if the train went from Cruces to ABQ - I get to downtown ABQ but how do I get to places which currently require a car? It was a very frustrating place to live on many levels and I'm honestly shocked the Rail Runner even exists in the first place a sort of stroke of luck, but again only serves a few key places in the north/central part of the state and no one else. If anything it really is representative of the entire experience of living in NM capturing the political landscape and regional politics.
"So yeah, they likely got used second hand rolling stock that was retired from elsewhere to be a cheap and cost effective as possible. "
They apparently have never heard of the Sunrail which operates the Orlando area, it's never open on the weekends or anytime between 10pm to 5am.
The car culture is considerably faster than the horse and buggy culture... New Mexico is not by any means the most densely populated state in the union, it is nearer to the least dense... Outside of the health care, university, public schools, and truck stop industry with their commercial services support, ranching and mining are the largest industries.... Although there is some oil field and a refinery in the SE area of the state near the Permian Basin...
You may of not mention to po po on New Mexico commuter rail but you did. Their not theFrenchTVG or Japans bullet trains but it’s exactly what’s right for New Mexico. As they pay down the bonds they will improve and extend the line to Las Alamos, and Las Cruces.
I always love the ‘car dependency ’ line. Usually from people that have no idea why people like and use cars (hint: they aren’t just waiting for a rail line so building one is irrelevant to most as they wouldn’t move from the car). But hey Ho as long as you continue that fantasy.
The slow speed is due to a federal speed limit. Unless the train and tracks are fitted with special equipment--automatic cab signaling, automatic train control, and automatic train stop--it cannot travel above 80mph. Unfortunately it can be expensive, most rail lines choose not to install them as a cost-saving measure, with Amtrak's NEC and Brightline being amount the few exceptions.
Most of your complaints about Rail Runner are legit. But most of their shortcomings are due to New Mexico being one of the poorest states in America.
I’m sure they would have loved to equip the trains with PTC and Cab Signal and build double tracks, but the money is just not available. 😢
No wonder why they just build the right of way and still a single track.
I'm going to bet that part of the problem is that New Mexico mosst likely has a neocon governor from the main neocon party, the Republican Party, and it doesn't care about commuter rail service or that not everybody has a car/truck/van.
EDIT: I just checked the Wikipedia page, and it's a solidly Democratic (Party) state; still, the state government could raise taxes and plow said tax monies into electrifiying the system as the OP said. This more than confiirms for me what I expressed in a video about vacationing in New Mexico made by Mark Wolters with regards to this train.
And the ridership cannot justify the millions of dollars to electrify.
@@MyersJ2Original Ridership depends on the quality of rhe service. A faster and higher frequency service will elp to significantly increase Ridership.
@@MyersJ2Originalthe problem is that the current service is shit. You cannot convince me that a service between a city of 500k and 90k doesn’t have enough ridership potential to get electrified. If you build it they will come
Single track lines are not really that bad. It all depends on how you schedule the trains so that they don't have to wait too long for each other. Many of the mainlines here in Northern Europe are single-tracked, but we are still able to keep a high frequency.
Seaboard was almost entirely a single track line, except near yards, junctions and cities. But their passenger trains moved FAST. In the sixties I was riding with my dad on US-321 south of Columbia SC. He was probably driving about 55mph. I knew it was about time for train 58, the northbound Silver Meteor. It was completely dark. The tracks and the highway are parallel for a long way in that area.
58 caught up and effortlessly passed us. I got a very good look at the train, as it was probably going 20mph faster than my dad was driving. It was an awesome sight.
The two times I've visited Switzerland it surprised me how many of the lines around Zurich are single track, but with Swiss efficiency and timekeeping it works very well.
Exactly, makes me think of the Bolzano-Merano line in northern Italy. It's all single track, yet they run a train every 30 minutes. Ok this one is not fast (many curves, many stops), but the frequency is great, so is the ridership - despite competing with one of the only free highways in the country.
yeah, in this computer age there is no excuse for single-track to work efficiently, especially with such low ridership.
Overall, the slow Rail Runner isn't well done. Much of rural Japan is diesel-electric trains on a single track. They're not huge heavy engines or rolling stock so they are quite nimble when they move. Check out some videos there... Most go about 80mph, even if they're an express bypassing a small station. While there are some sidings here and there, much of the passing trains happen at stations, which is logical. I watched a 2~4hr videos, I think there was only 1 stop at a siding, several passings at stations which may have 2~4 lines before going back to a single. A good one is: 4K cab view - Wide View Express Train "Nanki" Nagoya to Kii-Katsuura, Japan
153miles in 3hr55m. Keep in mind, it's making more stops and going through a LOT of curves around and through hills, over rivers and near the ocean. It's a little slower, but its efficiency is there.
Thank you for this video, which evokes many fond memories from my time when I used to live in New Mexico between 2015-2022, when I regularly used the Rail Runner to commute to the Albuquerque Airport for my flight, before I acquired my drivers' license and moved out.
For all its shortcomings the NMRX is in fact one of the most well-managed commuter rail services in the US. Among other things, the stations and trains are always kept in pristine conditions. (And yes, I noticed that they started replacing seat covers around two years ago.)
Double tracking would be ideal, but costs aside, I wonder if this would even be possible to begin with, given that sections of the line run through native pueblos. And their schedule used to be much worse -- there used to be only one train each way off-peak until right after I moved out, making it impossible to travel from Albuquerque to Santa Fe mid-day. This has since significantly improved. And the NMRX service is timed to connect to other modes of transport, notably express buses between downtown Albuquerque and the Albuquerque airport, and NM Park and Ride buses between Santa Fe and many smaller towns in New Mexico such as Los Alamos and Espanola.
Given the relatively small populations of Albuquerque and Santa Fe (560k and 90k) I would say the NMRX has pretty much served its purpose well. This is all thanks to former Gov Bill Richardson who had the vision to create an intermodal transit system across NM, a rather sparsely populated state. Many other areas in North America with bigger populations will likely never see commuter rail services at all to begin with.
Santa Fe is one of the most unique towns in all of North America, and NM the most unique state in terms of culture, food, and everything. Lots of Native American art and architecture. Wonder if you ever had a chance to visit Mille in downtown Santa Fe? It's owned and operated by a former French colleague of mine, and has the best French food I've ever had outside of France.
Are there any plans to extend it at the moment? The wiki is rather sparse.
@@TheRuralUrbanistto my knowledge, all extension proposals didn’t pass the state house.
They are double tracking it in the expansion passed.
14:34 "Even with such a small price, this train can't attract customers" So why the hell would they invest in double tracking for this few people? Just because it is double-tracked DOES NOT mean that any more people would take the train. That is train nerd fantasy. They are providing exactly the level of service that 1700 riders warrant.
Just wanted to point out a few things:
1. Yes, service is poor and would be greatly enhanced by more trains, more double tracking, and electrification, but honestly it is impressive that the Rail Runner exists at all. New Mexico has a statewide GDP of $115B, which is 38th/50 and significantly less than wealthier states that don't have any commuter rail options like Arizona ($430B), Kentucky ($245B), Louisiana ($267B), Iowa ($226B), or Ohio ($765B). The fact that Albuquerque and Santa Fe are connected by several trains a day at all is highly impressive when there are zero trains between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, and Columbus and Phoenix both have zero trains ever.
2. The lack of express trains is due to local politics that ultimately stem from the US government's abhorrent treatment of the Native Americans. Basically after colonizing their land and relegating their peoples to specific parcels, a railroad was constructed through because turns out these parcels were in convenient places. Fast forward a few decades and this line was reactivated for commuter rail service. NMRX has tried several times to introduce express trains, but the reservations protest this because it is their stations that would be skipped, and if they have to deal with (on top of the historical baggage of the reservation system in the first place) trains hauling through several times a day without service, then it is all cost for them for zero benefit. It's just politically unsavory to sit in Albuquerque or Santa Fe and argue to offer worse service to these groups located between.
3. This point wasn't raised in the video but I always wondered why they used such huge trainsets (full locos with bilevels) when DMUs like FLIRTs would certainly get the job done for much cheaper, especially given that they only run 2-3 coaches per train which is way underutilizing the MP36PHs. I asked an NMRX rep when I had the chance to get a technical tour of their facilities in 2016, and turns out in 2006 there were zero domestic DMU options with MP36PH plus Bombardier Bilevels as the best domestic option available. Had the service started a decade later, it is likely we would have seen FLIRTs or GTWs.
A different commentor noted that the trains are likely second hand (which shows how cheaply this line was built), not to mention FLIRTs and the like only got permissions to be used in railways a couple years ago as they wouldn't pass the then very strict FRA crash standards (notice that such trains are previously only used in light rail systems).
No doubt as the bilevel coaches are widely used, they were available at a reasonable price
To add on to #3, it wasn’t until 2018 that lighter trains met FRA safety standards. Waivers were possible before that, although these systems had to go to great lengths to ensure freight and passenger trains didn’t occupy the track at the same time.
Yes, you’re right the three C’s in Ohio don’t have any commuter trains at all or intercity trains. Yes, there’s a Amtrak train that runs from Cincinnati to believe Chicago but it comes out a very odd hour very early in the morning once a day and waiting in the station at that time is not a good idea probably
Electrification is ludacrisly difficult to implement in the US that's why there is so little and the freight railroads always complain if the catenary is a standard height because they can't run double stacked
I think you're being a bit hard on them, particularly in regards to the Santa Fe station, since the renovation and its obvious limitations is probably being done by the city and not by the railroad; I'm sure it will be a lot more user=friendly (and with ticket machines) when it is finished. Also, I don't think of an Albuquerque to Santa Fe service as a "commuter" train; I doubt if many of the people driving between the two cities are really commuters. Even a slow train is better than none at all, though I agree that enough of the line should be double-tracked to allow trains to pass each other at speed. And the price is an incredible bargain; they should probably quadruple it ($10 would still be a bargain!) and use the proceeds to make the improvements you suggest.
@jimpern, the problem with raising the fare to $10.00 is that the people who use it might object to paying that much to use it, especially if said passengers are low-income and/or are also disabled people who might be low income. This is _not_ going to be an easy thing to solve or accomplish, even _if_ the state government's a solidly liberal Democratic one.
The fare used to be much higher -- I believe $9.00 one-way between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. If I recall correctly, they slashed the prices by 75% post-pandemic. The Albuquerque public bus system also became free around that time.
@@Neville60001 True, but those same people aren't even riding it at $2.50!
@@CL-qg3vj, that's a great thing to hear about the Albuquerque bus system; there have been a lot of calls by activist organizations to have public transit be free, and this city's public transit agency did that! Pretty amazing.
People do use it to commute to Santa Fe; many people live in Albuquerque because Santa Fe is much more expensive.
Its an FRA rule that passenger trains cannot exceed 79 mph without in cab signalling.
That’s pretty low
@@austriankangaroo FRA works against railroads, FAA works for airlines.
"The rulebook is written in blood" - Railroader Saying
@@austriankangarooblame the 1946 Naperville wreck that's what we have the overly strict regulation
Something I didn't understand when discussing the scheduling, is what is so complicated about it? Its pretty simple and straightforward, four trains between ABQ and SF in both directions starting at 5:30AM, frequency is not the best, but for $2.50 over that big of a distance, what did one expect really? Same thing with the lack of a canopy for passengers, it likely is exactly the reason why the doors on the train opened so early before departure, because they don't expect people to be sitting out in what can be the VERY hot sun at times until it gets close to the departure time.
What's hard to understand about the express service? It makes 4 stops and there is one in either direction during morning and evening rush hour. Complaining that the service is bad everywhere is just going to reinforce car culture. Any service, even if its a bit plucky, is better than no service. And they made the sensible decision to run it down the middle of a highway. The entire system was built for $350 million mostly because they had to build a brand new right of way out of Santa Fe as the curves were much sharper. And for all of this, it was estimated that it would need a subsidy of $10 million annually to remain operational. That's pretty darn cheap for a service that is already dirt cheap. So when passenger numbers return to their Pre Covid level it should be turning a profit.
I haven't seen a Simply Railway video in a while and this was my first one, and the attitude here just comes off as completely tone deaf. There are many small cities in Europe that have a comparable quality of service between them and many countries that focused especially on their bright and shiny intercity trains while ignoring secondary services, France, Germany and Spain are all guilty of this.
Even in the UK's famous Settle to Carlisle line, there are not that much frequency of service compared to the London to Manchester multiple daily services...
I'm a fan of the channel but I don't think you appreciate the realities of building a commuter railroad in a sparsely populated area between two smaller cities. The fact that it exists at all is a testament to the organization who, without a doubt, had to operate under a tight budget. And, no, they won't see an increase in ridership if the make the changes you suggest, there are not transport infrastructure on either side to make it appropriate to be without a car. Let's just appreciate the fact that this was built!
NJB and his fanboys are the real ungrateful ones!
New Mexico facts: Spanish explorers and settlers arrived in the 16th century from present-day Mexico, naming the territory Nuevo México in part to evoke the Aztec legend of Aztlán, which in turn evolved into the stories of the Seven Cities of Gold. Isolated by its rugged terrain and the relative dominance of its indigenous people, New Mexico was a peripheral part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Following Mexican independence in 1821, it became an autonomous region of Mexico, albeit increasingly threatened by the centralizing policies of the Mexican government, culminating in the Revolt of 1837. The Acoma and Taos Pueblos are the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country! The Taos Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1450, and the Acoma Pueblo was built between 1000 and 1200
New Mexico's flag is one of only four state flags without the color blue (the other three being California, Alabama, and Maryland). The flag of New Mexico is also one of only two state flags (the other is Oklahoma) to include distinct Native American iconography. It is the sun symbol of the Zia people. Their solar symbol, a red circle with groups of rays pointing in four directions, is painted on ceremonial vases, drawn on the ground around campfires, and used to introduce newborns to the Sun. Four is the sacred number of the Zia and can be found repeated in the four points radiating from the circle
For an American state with a smaller population and economic base, I'm actually impressed that they pulled this off. Americans aren't keen on spending tax dollars on infrastructure unless they think they will use it personally. In the big city and coastal states, yes although paying for upgrades is tough. Good on you, New Mexico. Best of luck.
It was "pulled off" because a handful of bureaucrats essentially told the voters to "piss off... we are in charge and are going to do whatever we want". Literally every vote on the matter was crushed before it could happen because the bureaucrats and their minions knew it would never pass, not by a long shot. So here we are over $1.5 billion dollars pissed away, and multiple tens of millions more lost each and every year, looming interest and balloon payments well into nine-figures... All for a choo-choo that almost no one uses and that takes at least twice as long than simply driving.
I live there and it's very cool I know a lot of tourists ride it when they come here also like business people. They have free for seniors a certain day of week and that's pretty cool, it's used a lot very cool passenger train
@@ivotedforbeanis8819
It is not "used a lot", quite the opposite, ridership trends have been tanking since the beginning and getting worse. It is hemorrhaging money like never before and is literally unsustainable. I would be shocked if it makes it another 10 years or heck even 5 before finally being shut down.
Except highways and expressways. dont forget about airports either 🙂
Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed when you filmed this? I think that it is pretty incredible this train exists. Your improvements are unrealistic for a state with only 2.1 million people
YES! THIS!
New Mexico area size is nearly 122 thousand square miles, while France is 211 thousand square miles. Population of New Mexico is 2.1 million, while France is 68 million... New Mexico is half the area size and one thirtieth the population of France... No more needs to be said...
I have to say, while I get some of the points, most of them are kind of pointless at the point the service currently is. Yes, electrification is good and I’m generally in favor of it, but in this case you’d need to run a lot more trains before it would be worth it, since the entire track is only used for this one service. Acceleration is also not the biggest factor given the small number of intermediate stations. Double tracking the entire line would be nice, but is definitely overkill. Having timed passing loops at stations or long enough sections to pass at speed is all that’s really needed on a line without freight or long distance traffic. You could easily run a 30 minute service on a decently planned single track and that’s really all that’s going to be needed to make the service useful.
Single tracked sections are quite normal on spur routes in Europe as well and work fine if they are well designed. Next to my house in Germany is a non electrified service running a 15 minute headway on a single tracked line without problems.
Spot on!
Having lived in Albuquerque (1999-2006) I rode its inaugural run back in 2006, between Albuquerque's Alvarado Transportation Center and Sandoval County/US 550 station. Awesome commuter service with the possibility of great potential.
Growing up in South Florida, it made sense to have Tri-Rail Commuter Service between Miami/Dade and Palm Beaches but not in New Mexico. I recall I was shocked to learn the commuter service was going to happen where the population is low. What NM Rail Runner needs all along the way is to encourage transit-oriented communities. I have a love/hate feeling for arid New Mexico. Lively/solace as opposed to emptiness/loneliness.
New Mexico Rail Runner saw the light of the day from former Gov. Bill Richardson, a career Democrat who pushed hard to develop the commuter rail line that now stretches from Belen and Albuquerque to Santa Fe. However, in a Wikipedia article (source unknown), "The concept of passenger rail serving the Central New Mexico corridor had been discussed for decades, but it wasn't until August 2003, when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced that his administration was going to pursue the implementation of commuter rail service, that a serious effort got underway."
How the governor made it possible up in the Roundhouse, the capitol in Santa Fe, without public inputs and oversights baffled me. I can understand I-25 "Pan-America Highway" has a history of accidents and congestion in peak hours can get that bad. Though I voted for Richardson, in my opinion, it was a way to win voters' confidence in his place as New Mexico Governorship.
Woah, a ticket is only $2.50?! That's a great price for the distance! Plus the livery looks so nice
edit: got a little farther in the video and I'm completely on board with the fact that this service is missing the mark over and over again. They own the ROW, so this can be fixed, but WOW is that a bummer.
The Bummer is the REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR THAT WORKED TO SHUT IT DOWN. AND THE REPUBLIDANS IN WASHINGTON THAT WANT THE CHIEF OFF TOO. AND THE BNSF TRACK RIPPED UP.
One of the most important aspects of any commuter rail system, more important than the actual commuter line itself, is the ability to simply and quickly get to a specific location in the destination city after arriving at the terminus point. It's useless to get anywhere if, for example, it then takes another hour waiting for a bus to arrive and do a slow crawl somewhere. Just about every successful commuter train will enable connecting to a subway or light rail of some kind.
I read, there’s a bus line from the airport to connect with the train
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 But does Greyhound still serve Santa Fe? The answer is believe it or not, NO... I know its hard for many to comprehend, especially Europeans, Greyhound the number one passenger bus service nationwide does NOT serve every town and city in America... Not enough business, the bus depot closes...
@@ronclark9724But, you can take the train from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, where Greyhound does serve.
@@realemperorkuzco Unfortunately though you can not ride Greyhound to Calgary as Greyhound no longer serves Alberta...
@@ronclark9724 I did not know Greyhound serviced Canada.
It seems it it would be better if the passing could be done at speed, or have the passing loops integrated with the stations, where the trains would be stopped anyway.
Most, if not all of the intermediate stations between Santa Fe and Belen have two tracks, one main and one siding. You can examine the schedules to discover where scheduled meets are expected. The problem is with location of station stop points. If the location of every siding (station to receive or discharge passengers notwithstanding) is not equidistant, dwell time kills efficiency. Eliminating dwell time is critical to efficiency.
I often see you writing political troll comments on train videos. We need to stop viewing passenger rail as a partisan issue. We need to convince people across all ideologies to get on board.
Dude. I was on the construction crew of that museum. Around the same time period. We had someone who came to work every day via the rail runner.
I remember that you went to Santa Fe to film this quite a while ago. I was there just a week ago and they have finished refurbishment on the station. I did not go inside but it looks nice.
You should give Utah’s UTA front runner a try, same trains, bilevels too.
These are not two "major" cities (ABQ is the 32nd largest city in the U.S.) and this is a sparsely populated area to begin with. Given what they have to work with I think they did a good, if not great, job.
I can't think of another area that does better with a lesser population density. Even Maine's Downeaster with Amtrak locomotives and rolling stock has a larger density when you also include Massachusetts and New Hampshire...
New Mexico has a population of only about 2 million and that population is very spread out, which means there will be low ridership and low taxpayer funding, so new trains, electrification, double tracking, and ticket machines are a distant dream for New Mexicans. ALSO this video is obviously somewhat old, seeing as there are old seats in the cars, and Santa Fe Plaza Station is shown under construction. the station building in Santa Fe has been nicely finished since then, and all cars have received leather seats. BNSF owned the line until recently so double tracking was out of the question until now.
@amandajasonmathews1671, I feel for the people of New Mexico (and for you if you're a New Mexican), but as I said above just now today, that's no excuse for the (Democratic) state government for not raising money to improve Rail Runner by imposing a sales tax, asking for aid from the federal government to improve said train, or issue savings bonds that can raise money to fund said improvments to Rail Runner ( _nobody_ in North America should be using DMU's to haul people locally, at all.)
@@Neville60001 the Democrat state government would probably like to be elected so they aren't going to be raising taxes especially the sales tax to support a lightly used service.
And electrifying the service, most electricity in NM is either coal or natural gas with coal still being the major source.
@@emilkarpo, does anybody not know how to build nuclear reactors or solar power plants in New Mexico? Most of this state's power problems would be solved right then and there (oh yeah, one other thing about nuclear power: _please_ *_don't_* give me the bullshit about it being dangerous, it can be made to be safe as anything, just ask Thibeaut about how his county's doing using nuclear power, and how safe it can be made [hint: the French haven't had a meltdown at _any_ of their nuclear reactors, at all.])
Right, I remember seeing European trains during this time period having much less riders!
@@Neville60001 Currently Biden Admin. wants to make NM a renewable energy hub and there's a wind/solar plant being built that'll produce 5 Gigawatts with 500 miles of high tension to deliver it to surrounding states. (if you don't know 1 Gigawatt can power about 1 million homes).
None of those improvements would increase ridership. Very few people live or work close enough to the stations to take the train.
@mirzaahmed6589, are you sure about that? What about the (foreign) visitors to New Mexico that _don't_ want to drive everywhere (and who also probably don't have a driver's license because they don't drive back home)?
@@Neville60001 Problem is foreign visitors are a drop in the bucket and New Mexico isn't exactly a major foreign tourist destination. The crowd that visits Santa Fe are NOT candidates for public transit.
Exactly, he doesn’t realize that New Mexico, particularly suburban areas, are spread out, you need to drive to the station or if you are lucky, get a bus to the station. Why would someone, for example a tourist, decide to drive to a station, board a train, and get off at another station, when they can just drive it? This isn’t LA traffic, you can usually get to your destination quicker or in the same amount of time by car.
@@emilkarpo I am a tourist that’ll visit in Santa Fe for the first time and I’m going to take the train because I don’t enjoy hiring a car alone. Anyway, I heard at least some of the Santa Fe’s walkable and I like exploring and seeing the art and some museums and craft shop and I Enjoy walking.
YES, that's what I've noticed most about it, usually the area around most stations have terrible land use (with the exception of maybe SF depot and downtown ABQ). In North ABQ I've figured out a bike route to get to the station near there and I could see it as manageable, but there's nothing around the station so why would most people want to be there?
Single-track is not unknown in Europe, you know! We were surprised to find that the line between Stockholm and Oslo - two capital cities - was single-track most of the way! And yes, the trains were late....
I have rode sleeper overnight trains in the Balkans that were single tracked as well... Not every train in Europe is HSR...
I went to college in a town called Socorro, which is about an hour south of Albuquerque. The railrunner doesn't go that far south, but there is a connecting bus. For me it was the only way to go into the city without driving, and I was super thankful for it. Because of the cheap cost and the student discount I got, it was an incredibly good deal for a college student. I really love this service, in spite of its flaws.
People on New Mexico are fairly easy going and laid back. Things like trains at 110 mph and dual track over single track are just not important so enjoy the ride for $2.50 round trip it’s a great bargain and is what it is.
The music city star in nashville tn makes this thing look like a swiss watch railroad
Id take this over what us Tennesseans have for a sad commuter service
Thank you Koch Brothers...
I have to drop my late husband's car off in ABQ for some repair work, and I live in Los Alamos, NM. I have never taken the Rail Runner and was considering using it to get to at least Santa Fe (bus from there) and not have to rent a car because I have a 2nd car at home. It has been complicated for me to figure out how to use it and catch a bus the rest of the way home given the time I need to drop off my car.
I was driving southbound on I-25 one time and watched a massive vehicle collision in the northbound lane, and a car ran off the road, peeling up a barrier as it went, then hit the Rail Runner tracks, and bounced backwards. Super scary accident and I don't know if the people were okay. A ton of energy as the car was probably doing 85 mph. Lots of cars were stopping on the other side, and traffic was such on our side that it didn't seem safe to stop. We called 911, since we just watched the accident happen and I doubt anyone called yet. I have lived in NM for 24 years, and that is my extent of interaction with the Rail Runner. In my opinion, the problem is the rest of NM lacks decent public transport. There are large expanses and not a lot of people. So, timing tends to be bad. There is a bus service that goes from Santa Fe to Los Alamos, but none of the times are aligned properly for when I would get there. Everything is really set up for commuters and, in the Los Alamos area, for people commuting to LANL. I have to be in ABQ at 8:30 am to drop off my car. But, I cannot get back home until at least 3:30 pm because it is too late to catch the right bus connection as the Labbies go earlier from Santa Fe. It is normally a 1 hr 45 min drive.
This is NM, though, and it is really hard to get anyone to do anything. So, I think it is pretty much a miracle that the rail service happened, even if it is all screwed up. The corridor passes through Pueblo land. I don't know if it would have even been possible to do the things you suggested. NM might appear to have a ton of space, but I would guess it is along I-25 for a great distance for potential reasons unrelated to geography.
People who live in Santa Fe (I don't) told us that no rail station at the Albuquerque Airport (ABQ) was planned because the Albuquerque taxi/limo owners didn't want the competition. Since Santa Fe is one of the few (only?) state capital cities without a moderate sized or larger airport, it would make sense that a direct connection from Santa Fe to ABQ would greatly increase ridership.
No. People from Sante Fe would NEVER take a train to the airport. They take their limos...
That is pretty silly to not run a commuter train to the airport. That was first thing Denver did when they built the RTD commuter rail, the first commuter line went straight to the airport. Of course the light rail had been running for 22 years at that point while artfully not going to the airport haha. But generally in Denver, the commuter rail is awesome in the places where it does run (100% electrified EMUs, 15min frequency during off peak, more frequent during peak) and the light rail is slow and pathetic.
Great video, even if it wasn't positive. I really appreciate it when people who give criticism are actually constructive and present specific solutions (which you have). Unfortunately, I think that most of the problems here boil down to lack of sufficient resources available. Hopefully in the future they will get the resources to implement some of your solutions. When I visit New Mexico (it's on my list!), I will check out this train as a tourist attraction!
New Mexico is under-appreciated in terms of tourism. Visit soon!
Im not sure what you expected or if you were just in a crap mood but they are doing a pretty good job for what they have. Whining about why isn’t it electric or why do they have to over federal speed laws etc is beyond their control. I’m sure the people there are happy to have access to anything remotely like this especially at such a cheap price
How are they doing a "good job"?
How exactly is it "cheap"?
The whole project is over one billion dollars in the hole...
And every ticket is subsidized by the taxpayer ~$110
I like the livery and I'm so thrilled that Santa Fe and Albuquerque are connected by rail.
Most of the traffic is between Santa Fe and Albuquerque so all trains don't need to service Belen. More frequencies are possible by turning short at Albuquerque.
You're coming from a good place but I think your review is too harsh. NM is a small, poor state, and they are clearly trying to do something really cool here. The grey weather didn't help because this is one of the most scenic parts of the USA which ironically gets more sunshine than anywhere else! Thanks for checking this out.
Way too harsh, delusional too. It’s cool that any sort of commuter rail exists but instead of enjoying what this relatively poor state has done, he bashes it and suggests all these big extravagant delusional ideas that are unrealistic for a state this size.
@@nicholashogan4704 true
The autos along the Interstate are exceeding the speed limit when the train is going 79 MPH.
Some observations:
It's not really fair to harshly judge a station that's in the middle of a major renovation, even if it's behind schedule.
I agree that the livery is clever, unique, and outstanding. Beep-beep!
South is not always toward Albuquerque, as the line extends south of ABQ to Belen.
You're overstating the importance of aerodynamics to a push-pull consist. This isn't HSR.
The major problem with most US rail transit is low frequency but, given our history of paving over rail lines, it's a bloody miracle that New Mexico even HAS a commuter rail line!
Our approach is often to just get the darn thing started, allow TOD to develop around stations, and then upgrade frequency and speed while adding a few infill stations. This takes time (for example, DC's Metrorail officially opened for business in 1976 but its first infill station didn't open until 2004).
You offer some valid criticisms, but you also omit some important points.
First, the population of Santa Fe is about 88,000 and the population of ABQ is about 560,000. Neither are booming metropolises. Let's assume that a third of the people in Santa Fe are in the workforce (about 30K), how many of them actually have jobs in ABQ that would require them to commute daily? Very few. If you already live in ABQ, there would likely be very few job opportunities for you in Santa Fe (one-sixth the size) that would require you to commute. Given those numbers, 1,700 rides per day seems reasonable to me.
One thing that NMRX could have done is run the route to stop at the ABQ airport instead of having it stop 4.5 miles away from the terminal (by car). That may have driven up ridership a tad for people flying into the state wanting to do business at the state capital.
It may be better to think of NMRX as an short intercity or regional railroad and not as a commuter railroad.
Most people who do commute, actually commutes to Santa Fe because it is insanely expensive compared to Albuquerque.
11:39 Same with the system here in Austin - they scraped the little money they had together and started a commuter line on about 30ish miles of track, but all single track.
Now that the system is experiencing growth, they are beginning to double track. The problem is, the double tracking is causing HUGE delays and there are even weeks where they totally _suspend_ service which I just find mind blowing. If you rely on the train to go to work or school, you're just SOL. It was designed bad from the start.
CapMetro used a abandoned railroad line from downtown to a northwest outer suburb, but didn't bridge across the Colorado River to serve the south side of the city... Very poor planning... A proper commuter railroad should serve downtown in at least two directions with one line, if not more directions and lines...
Ive used the RailRunner with some frequency and enjoy it. With much of Santa Fe being easily walkable, I no longer rent a car at ABQ airport... just take the RailRunner and walk around town... beep, beep❤
This guy makes it sound like it’s unusable 😂
That’s what I plan to do! I’ve never seen Santa Fe and I don’t like to rent a car in a strange area I’m traveling alone. So plan next year to fly to Albuquerque and I read there’s a bus from the airport to the train station and then I just walk around Santa Fe and see the beautiful museums and art, etc. all by walking :) !
79mph top speeds are normal across North America for most companies other than Amtrak. To my knowledge, the only commuter trains that regularly exceed that speed are those of MARC.
I believe SEPTA can operate at 125mph on some lines and NJT can operate at 125mph when on NEC tracks. LIRR used to operate at 100mph, but they reduced their line speed to 80mph a couple decades ago.
A lot of nitpicking in this piece that isn't justified. Not everyone is commuting from Albuquerque to Santa Fe or vice versa. This really isn't commuter rail, it is regional rail. People ride for all kinds of reasons. In fact, with remote work and telework, the days of the guy with the briefcase catching the 8:15 into the city and the 5:15 home is pretty much over. Nobody buys tickets from a ticket window anymore, everyone has a smart phone and buys tickets on line. This is not a high speed rail line and isn't intended to be. Yes, 110 would be nice, but the point isn't to be faster than the car. As fast is just fine. A double track railroad would be very expensive to maintain and simply wouldn't be economically sustainable. The very minor inconvenience of passing another train isn't something anyone is going to care about. This is a very useful and used service and provides cost effective transportation to the people of New Mexico. It is a blessing to those who do not have a car and need to get to work or visit family. This nit picking hit piece just isn't realistic or justified.
NJB and his fanboys are much much worse nitpickers and hit piece writers with even less realistic and justified hatred towards American transit!
11:44 It certainly is bad UNLESS you make your schedule in a way that allows for good operation and make sure your trains go on time, then you can operate even on single track without delays (Example: Uetlibergbahn in Zurich)
Meep Meep! In most of the United States, public transportation is for someone ELSE to take. That's one of the reasons we get stuff like this.
@jonathangat4765, not all public transportation's like New York or Chicago, and it has to factor in the demands of the people who drive as well as the people who take public transit. Building electric railways isn't the easy thing the OP of this video thinks it is (and I say this as a person who supports the building of electric commuter railways, especially here in Southern Ontario [in particular the area near Toronto, where I live that's only just narrowly got a promise of GO-Government of Ontario-Transit's rail system being slated to be electrified.])
@@Neville60001 to be fair, the creator of this video is from France, where most of the network is electrified. With that context, electrifying this single relatively short, flat line probably seems like it should be fairly easy
Dude cmon the Rail Runner is definitely not what you think, it's pretty relaxing and it operates how it should but I do think that it does need a 2 track line but other than that I've had no problems on it
Many rebuttals:
1. It would make no sense to build temporary shelters for them to be torn down, they were actively working on renovations, let them work on that rather than a shelter that will be torn down once it’s complete.
2. A simple search, which you are obviously capable of, will tell you to board the train and wait for a ticket agent.
3. Have you spoken to the conductors and engineers? Well I have, in their current setup they work a minimum of 44 hours a week, and Herzog is struggling to find more conductors. They have recently added more trains permanently, removing the “T” next to many route numbers. Along with that, when 33 people ride a system that could be made in the same distance by car, there isn’t much point to add more trains.
4. This isn’t a tourist train, many people take this to work or school, a vending machine would not do much good, go out in ABQ or Santa Fe and support a small business or local food joint.
5. There is usually no need for double track on this route, there are double tracks where they pass each other, like Montano or Downtown Berna. Assuming trains can stay on time, there should be no problem. Amtrak and other freight trains can hold for NMRX to pass. It is indeed not always like that, you do not seem to realize how hard it already was to get the state congress to pass funding for this, it’ll take something rather than nothing.
6. The speed restriction is something that the state decided not to invest the equipment into, nothing Herzog can do about it at this point.
7. If it’s too slow for you, rent a car, oh wait that’s expensive. Be grateful you are getting for Point A to B.
8. New Mexico is poor, your expectations are delusional for a state this poor.
9. Tell Republicans in Congress to help fund public transportation, the poor state of New Mexico cannot alone.
You complain a lot. Otherwise nice shots in the video.
Man it's a shed in a lay-by, New Mexico isn't poorer than Ukraine who manage to run better services than this out of bombed out buildings. I'd be less precious about the objectively terrible state of US rail and start moaning at people who can do something about it, not random trip reviewers!
@@prostakukI’m not moaning or bashing him, I’m simply giving my thoughts, I am also pointing out that blaming the Rail Runner isn’t great either, blame government officials who can fund these projects, so it’s not Rail Runners fault, it’s a greater issue that needs to be addressed.
With this kind of attitude, rail will NEVER improve in the USA.
THIS!!!
@@nicholashogan4704He’s a typical arrogant European trying to push their culture on us.
Given New Mexico's population Density, not surprising about the ridership numbers. I'd like to know how many people make that drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque on I-25? I was in NM last month and drove I-25 from Las Cruces to Santa Fe and let me tell you, had I'd known about this commuter train, I would have taken it in Santa Fe. The $5:00 for a round trip, you absolutely can't beat that price driving it... I-25 is boring and you have to contend with the trucking traffic as well, as they pull into the left lane to pass a slower truck. And that is not done quickly most of the time, you end up stuck behind a rolling gauntlet of two trucks in both travel lanes ( and long line of cars) until the passing truck FINALLY pulls in front of the slower truck, which can take miles to achieve. So... it has some "warts" to contend with, but between the low fare and much less aggravation than driving I-25, I think it's winner.
If they could do it, extending it down I-25 to Las Cruces would be nice, but New Mexico is a poor state.. low population density and not much industry to support employment and generate tax revenues. I think they did a decent enough job with what they had available to spend. New Mexico is always working on I-10 to try and maintain it , it gets pretty beat up from the amount of heavy big rigs trans-versing through NM on their way Eastward. I imaging a lot of their budget is eaten up by the I-25 repairs.
Bottom line, it gets the job done. I'd still ride it for 2 reasons. 1) Cheap fare. 2) As you pointed out, beautiful scenery.
It's pretty much the New Mexico way in time you get used to it and later on come to love the pace and "quirky" nature of things.
You can't get your bike off the Amtrak train, so I have to take the Rail Runner back to Santa Fe. It gets there almost at dark, so it is a 20 mile bike ride in the dark to the campground. Then it is a whole day getting to Amtrak and waiting, since there are almost no weekend trains. All things considered, it is better than nothing. I mean, most places don't even give you an option of a train in the first place.
They have recently added a bit more weekend service
One of the very rare days it’s raining in NM.
09:40-10:18 the Road Runner beep in Europe its used as the train length indicator for ÖBB Baureihe 1016-1216 DB MRCE Dispolok Baureihe 182 Eurosprinter locomotives. Which makes New Mexico the other user of the Taurus Roadrunner beep for train length indicator. Railrunner needs to be run like Northeast United States commuter rail which are Boston New York MTA and NJ Transit electric territory. Stadler factory is in neighbouring Utah which is part of the four corner States Arizona Colorado New Mexico
@EpicThe112, the state may not have the monies needed to carry out widescale electrification of this commuter service (and they may have to think about how this will fit wwith the freight train network); of course, as I said just now, the state could raise the taxes and use said tax monies to pay for electrifiying everything.
New Mexico isn't New York. The only really big city is Albuquerque.
@@centredoorplugsthornton4112 We could use more mixed use neighborhoods tho
These locos look just like the locos Florida’s Sunrail uses.
Same design they were designed for Toronto's system but salt lake City Seattle Albuquerque and Orlando bought them too
Railroads without cab signaling are limited to 79 mph in the US. Cab signaling is expensive and is only used in the northeast and one Los Angeles area line. Also, maintaining tracks at FRA Class 6 (110 mph) is much more expensive than maintaining them for Class 4 (80 mph). If signaling prevents trains from going more than 79 mph, there isn't a point in upgrading the tracks.
We run trains at 125mph without cab signalling in the UK perfectly safely.
There is some 110 mph in Michigan and New York too.
@@squeaksvids5886 IIRC, not possible here in Germany, though trains still can drive up to 160 km/h / 100 mph without cab signalling for decades.
Some concerns brought up in this video are valid, but the main thing to consider is that most US commuter rail lines operate only as a _service_ over mostly existing trackage, not as companies who build and manage their own infrastructure. As a result, many "issues" with the service are completely out of their control, like the routing (with the exception of the freeway median section), the lack of electrification, and the speed limit (which is based on many other factors in addition to the trains' maximum speed and the straightness of the track as determined by US federal regulations).
In general, I would say that it's actually quite amazing that this service exists, because it allows the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area to have much better regional rail transit than almost any metropolitan area of its size in the US. Trust me when I say that multiple other US cities are far, far worse in their implementations of commuter rail...
Hi Tibault, I actually rode this very trip in 2014 with my grandparents. We traveled from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and then turned around the same day. I recall it being fairly okay except a group of elderly women being very loud which annoyed both of my grandparents and a fair amount of dark exhaust visible from the carriage. Seems as though nothing has changed overall.
Tell them to keep it down
3:50 that second coach, the one with the intense paint job, is an old P72 coach from the Long Island Railroad. They were built in the 1950s and retired between 1998 and 2000, they were replaced by the double decker coaches that you reviewed in an earlier video. I remember them from when I was growing up, they were very tired looking, only rode them once in December of 1998.
I definitely love the roadrunner logo and it’s color scheme!
Just to be clear about the single tracking issue, when the railroad was finished between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The section between the interstate was built completely new, and doing so they kept the right-of-way ready for double tracking when it came to it. It was a, (though costly in some sections) good future proofing measure they have.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the windy way into Santa Fe proper. That section pushes the heavy diesel locos to their limits with how sudden the grades are, and since it winds through the suburbs they cannot be doubled. Getting permits for such a project would raise hell in those neighborhoods, mostly rich folk who will block any attempt.
Thanks for the video. I just went on the Rail Runner a few months ago, and I didn't have that great of an experience either. Hopefully they'll improve eventually.
Well they are closing in on 20 years of operation so it's unlikely things will get better at this point. New Mexico is not a booming state like its neighbors Arizona and Texas, the money just isn't there.
@@emilkarpo New Mexico could be, but alas, their legislature and state government is NOT business or corporate friendly...
Ok, separate but somewhat related issue to southwest US passenger rail: there are NO direct trains from Albuquerque to Denver! Both Rail Runner and Amtrack could chime in to build a route between two major US cities. It takes obscenely long time to travel via train between the two cities. Because there are no direct routes, you have to travel all the way to Chicago first, then from Chicago to Denver. Insanity.
Bro nobody is doing that
welcome to auto-loving USA
I thought Amtrak has a bus service that connects Raton or maybe Trinidad to go up the front range to Denver passing Pueblo and Col. Springs etc. But maybe not? It's certainly not a train all the way, but at least would get you there in the same day.
Actually that would be a wonderful idea but it would have to be an overnight train
There have been proposals of HSR from Denver to El Paso and out of the many HSR proposals in U.S. currently I see that as the least likely to happen.
@Smiply Railway -- if you are there, I hope you get to The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad,
AT LEAST YOU GOT A TRAIN. ...
Arizona so hot dooki sometimes ya know just hot
No train from Phoenix,AZ to Flagstaff. Too bad.
Ok, yeah. Rail Runner doesn't measure up against Europe, who's been doing commuter rail the right way for what...50 years?? But give us yanks a break, we're babies in the train game. This is damn impressive, *especially* for such a low-population region. Gotta start somewhere right?? Give it time, I think this service will improve and become properly useful. Just my £0.02
I understand your frustration with this line, but we have to realize that the US, for the most part, are newbies to the whole concept of rail commute and have a lot to learn. Even some of the commuter trains in Los Angles (where I live) is single track and greater L.A. have some 20 million people.
Europeans have difficulty contemplating America's huge size and less population density. Albuquerque is only a city of around a half million in a desert to mountainous area closer to the Sahara desert than the rolling hills of France with nearly half of France's 68 million population within a hundred mile radius of Paris... New Mexico is 2 million, not 68 million... Truth is considering this is New Mexico, this is New Mexico's densest corridor, barely 600 thousand, with 500 thousand of that in Albuquerque...
I know. I live I L.A. and occasionally talk to people from Europe who plans to go from X to Y to Z attractions in one day not understanding it might be a 2 -3 hours drive between each, depending on traffic.
@@ronclark9724
Did you sit with mike? Bonus points if you know what im talking about!
I rode this route in June and the train was packed with people.
It's nearly the same everywhere with commuter trains. During rush hours they are packed, during the rest of the day they are nearly empty...
6:36 It is common for smaller software publishers/developers to only make their apps available in a limited number of countries’ app stores. This is particularly true where Europe is involved; companies don’t want to deal with the time and expense of ensuring that they don’t violate GDPR, especially when they don’t expect many EU customers.
As I said in another response here, if a foreigner wants to get this app, they simply use a VPN to buy it from the store beforehand.
We rode the Rail Runner in the fall of 2021 to and from a three night stay in Santa Fe on a trip via Amtrak to Albuquerque. We appreciated being able to use it, but agree that the lack of frequency is a significant hinderance to its usefulness. For example, we tried to plan a trip south of Albuquerque to visit the restored Belen Harvey House, but couldn't make that work with the schedules.
no need for electrification or emu's, if they can just increase the frequency and double-track it to make it a viable option to driving
If I had any say in the New Mexico Railrunner, I would include a nostalgic announcement jingle like a few notes of their state song "O Fair New Mexico"!
A few things... Double tracking would double your construction costs as well as your annual maintenance costs. It would be hard to justify the millions of dollars you would be spending annually to save a few minutes passing trains in the siding. Electrifying the railroad makes no sense, as it would probably quadruple your original costs. I am sure the locals wouldn't be too happy with thousands of poles, wires, etc. mucking up that beautiful New Mexico landscape.
Many passenger cars and locomotives do not do well at higher speeds. Cars may rock, hunt, or bounce enough to throw passengers around when they are walking around the cars. Track at speeds higher than 79 mph must be kept in excellent condition and under constant scrutiny. Passenger cars and locomotives would also be held to a much higher standard, which would be costly. Most high-speed trains were built for high speeds as well as the track.
This isn't New York or California. New Mexico is pretty boring, and I am pretty sure even if the train was going 50 mph, nobody would care. It's not like anyone is in a hurry to get anywhere. I think many people ride this train for fun and not to get from point A to point B. I am actually surprised this train is still running considering it has been a money pit and will always operate in the red.
Even our roads don't pay for itself! Welcome to New Mexico!
Thanks for the honesty. I used Rail Runner from ABQ to SF for appointments at CStV during active treatment. Scheduling was/remains befuddling, and line underused (however, I enjoyed the ride!)
10:14 I feel like an idiot because I was expecting… well… hoping for a breaking bad reference but then that makes a million times more sense.
I seriously doubt you’d see a “boom” in ridership. It’s New Mexico for crying out loud!
Way too hard on this operation... this isn't France, it's New Mexico, before this train existed no one here rode trains (Southwest Chief is so minor to be almost irrelevant to the discussion) and if you think this is bad I could give you a long list of much worse in the US (ie all rush hour service in peak direction only, 3-4 trains a day). Crazy to expect electrification and all double tracking and super frequent schedules. Railrunner really is more of an intercity line between the two key cities in the state than your typical commuter line, so it just needs a number of trains throughout the day. Santa Fe is also a tiny city, it just happens to be the State capital and culturally significant so its quite remarkable a train service to it even exists in the US. The Santa Fe station is being renovated too and they bring the trains deep into the city versus the easy path of terminating them further south outside the city center which a lot of operations elsewhere would have done, there's historic buildings directly north of the current SF terminus.
I'll list the worse American rail services:
1. ACE (by far the worst of all!)
2. Music City Star
3. Northstar
4. Sunrail
5. Sounder north line
6. Metra Heritage Corridor
7. Metra NW line
Bonus: West Coast Express in Vancouver/Abbotsford (which is in Canada, not the USA)
P.s.: "New Mexico" is not a country, so it doesn't make sense to compare with a real country like France. Since New Mexico is a subnational territory within a country, a more accurate comparison is Australia's Northern Territory (which has no regional rail).
$2.50 is a steal for a train ride!
5:53 Amtrak also legally has right of way, but that doesn’t help when freight trains are now often too long to fit into sidings
There are no freight trains on the NMRX line.
@@tonyburzio4107 I’m aware; the point was that late Amtrak trains are late for a reason
So I'm not exactly sure where it starts but some of the land filmed was near Santo Domingo pueblo (Kewa station), and you can't film or photograph without permission. They sometimes announce it on the train, sometimes they don't.
I rode the RR to middle school for a year, then highschool for 3 years. Grew up right between SD and Cochiti. Just wanted to let you know just in case you werent aware or get complaints.
Single track, diesel powered, level crossings, low speed... not exactly 21st century, is it?
New Mexico's one of the poorest states in the US. Can't exactly be 21st century even if they wanted to.
@@happyburger23 but its the poorest state in the richest country on earth, its just down to the fact that the US sucks at infrastructure that isnt for cars
@@happyburger23, that's not an excuse; the state government can ask for federal government aid in improving the Rail Runner service, or it can geneate a sales tax, the proceeds of which would go to funding said improvements (the people would and will grumble about said tax, but they'd have to accept it as part of the cost of running and upgrading things like this commuter service.)
110 mph service would not onlyrequire not cab signaling, automatic train stop or ATC/PTC but a new set of locomotives and coaches. The locos are good for 102 mph and the bi-level cars 93 mph.
Albuquerquean here. The main problem with that rail system is that there really is only one stop that has good public transit access and that is the Downtown ABQ stop where you can access the ART and the ART really only gets around downtown, nob hill, and uptown. Most of the stops will leave you stranded. Now, if you have a bike you can get around pretty well, but even that is limiting. What I’ve been hoping is that ABQ and Santa Fe would beef up their public transit, but work on that has been slow and housing continues to focused on sprawl rather than density. I believe regular local Commenters are key to any sustainable public transit and right now they need to have a car to conveniently get around the city. That other stuff sounds cool, but I’d still not ride it because what am I going to do when I get to Santa Fe without a vehicle?
NM is about the same size as Germany but 1/40th the population -- that exemplifies why rail is so hard to do in the US compared to Europe.
and pretty sure there's long been service from SF to Albuquerque -- that's why there's an old passenger station. it would have had to share tracks with freight trains, and been slow on old track that may have been narrow gauge routes originally. also i think i've seen old pictures that some of the routes feeding the station originally street ran, which may have to do with them now being a bit roundabout.
1.5 hours and 2.50 bucks? That screams like highly subsidized service
It is, and mostly for state government employees who live and work in Albuquerque but have to go to the state capitol on occasionally...
Today it costs $9.00 for a day pass between ABQ and SF
That riders trip is taxpayer subsidized $110 just to cover basic operating cost
Currently it takes 1 hour and 42 minutes for a commuter to go from the downtown station to Santa Fe
Plus you still have the time/cost needed to get to/from the station on each end
Using "public transit" to get from my home in the foothills of Albuquerque to the Santa Fe Plaza it would take ~4 hours using a combination of the train, busses, and walking about 3 miles. Also the busses and stations are filled with vagrants, druggies, and criminals so that adds to the fun. The busses are so bad the drivers sit inside plexiglass enclosures to try and keep them from being assaulted... they do not work.
Using just the train and POV for the same trip would take 2 hours and 30 minutes, using my POV to get to downtown, walk to the station, train to SF, then walk another mile to the plaza. Also the downtown area is over run with vagrants, drug use, and crime so I would have to deal with that plus the high likelihood of my vehicle being broken into.
Meanwhile I can drive from my home in the foothills of Albuquerque to the Santa Fe Plaza in just 55 minutes. All in the comfort, safety, and privacy of my own vehicle. Plus I can also change my plans in an instant since I do not have to be limited to government schedules.
When I took the Chief from Santa Fe to Chicago about 7 years ago, you actually started by taking an Amtrak-chartered taxi from SF to Lamy to meet the train. (There is no (or wasn't) direct Amtrak service to SF.) Does the tourist RR that you mentioned interface at all with the Amtrak schedule to allow you to get there by rail at least some of the time?
Love the doors closing sound!! Beep beep!!❤
I liked the "meep meep" Road Runner sound. It's just a quirky, fun thing to create a nice mood so I wouldn't call it "useless". That was an unfair criticism.
Don't get me wrong, I like the meep meep. I wish they had put more effort into the commuter service itself them the meep meep
@@SimplyRailway Je comprends mais c'est dégoûtant de dire "inutile".
@@SimplyRailway Considering the service provided plenty of seats on the train you took, one can make the argument the state did more than enough to satisfy demand...
Thank you for this video which I thoroughly enjoyed. The rolling stock is great, and clearly very well maintained. Increased frequencies would be a good idea, but by European standards the fares are incredibly low, and do not generate sufficient income to increase either the frequency or justify doubling parts of the route. However, I really like the Rail Runner !
Instead of completely double-tracking, they could add a lengthy pass track section or two.A couple of ten-mile passing segments might do the trick. Just depends on the budget.
According to their web site, fares are $ 2.00 to $12.00 one way.
They are only allowed a certain speed as it's restricted by PTC NMRX is equipped with PTC. They also sometimes don't have the right of way there's a lot more to it then just running up and down the corridor. Plus we can't afford some of the things as it's about 100 miles of track and its hard with the cost of everything.
Excellent review my friend, btw, you should also try the Skyrail Tourist Train sometime, it departs from the same station as the Railrunner and takes you out on a journey through the desert like no other ;) I highly recommended it, I'd love to see your review of it
i was on Amtrak an ended up catching a taxi from Lamy to SF.. did not know the rail runner existed.. would have much preferred that!
Just off the top of my head without doing any research, I wonder what the feasibility of building an extension straight to Albuquerque's airport and having a station there. I'm sure it's been looked into it. Maybe people around here already have pros/cons and know the constraints. But it is significantly cheaper to fly and more flight options into Albuquerque over Santa Fe.
I read there’s a bus from Albuquerque airport to the rail Runner Station.