BNSF suggests Amtrak line run through Amarillo

Some railroad representatives have suggested that Amtrak reroute a portion of its Los Angeles to Chicago line through Amarillo, Clovis, N.M., and Wichita, Kan., but officials with the passenger rail service believe the route's current course is fine, local media report. Amtrak's Southwest Chief route has experienced delays because BNSF, which owns some of the lines Amtrak travels on, has imposed a lower speed limit on 180 miles of tracks running mostly through southern Kansas.

"Right now, (the
delays) are not significant," said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman,
referring to plans to not reroute the L.A. to Chicago line.

BNSF, which offered the
Wichita, Amarillo and Clovis alternative, lowered the speed limit from 79 to 60
mph because that segment of the Southwest Chief route has experienced wear and
tear. The new regulation has created 40-plus-minute delays. Joseph Faust, a
BNSF spokesman, said Amtrak is free to use the freight tracks in Amarillo, but
that option would require a great deal of study.

"Amtrak has
statutory rights to use BNSF’s rail lines," he wrote in an e-mail.

Magliari said the Amarillo
area doesn’t need to have a stop for the Southwest Chief, in part, because
Texas is looking to get federal funding for rail transportation in the future.

"You have several
options for passenger rail in the future, and a large part is that they are at
the state level," he said. "Our intention is to stay on the current
route. We have a hundreds and thousands of passengers (traveling from
Albuquerque, N.M., to Newton, Kan.)."

Jennifer Moczygemba, rail
system section director for the Texas Department of Transportation, said the
agency would be performing studies on the chances of increasing rail service in
Texas.

"We’re at the point
now where we pretty much have studies such as looking at (current) ridership
numbers," she said. "We’re still at that planning stage, but we’re
looking at those high-speed and local passenger rails."

Moczygemba said Amarillo
could figure in TxDOT’s rail projects.

"During a recent
stakeholders’ meeting in Lubbock, there was some discussion about getting
something from El Paso to Dallas/Fort Worth, and maybe even have something from
the Panhandle tying into that," she said. "A lot of it has to do with
the funding that’s available."

Although he concedes such
a system would need further study, Potter County Commissioner Alphonso Vaughn is
generally supportive of bringing passenger rail service through Amarillo.

"As a general
statement, I think it’s something we need to look at," he said. "It
makes sense to alleviate a lot of the fuel consumption that we do. It creates a
cleaner atmosphere. That just helps, along with getting around a lot
easier."

If passenger train
service returns here, Vaughn said he would like to see the line service more
than one area in Amarillo.

"In some areas it
would do well. Especially the downtown area, which is going through
revitalization," he said. "As we begin to grow, it would be something
to look into."