A promotional run of the Rail Runner to Raton and Las Vegas cost taxpayers plenty.  On the weekend of July 25, 2009, the Rail Runner rolled north to show its stuff to the residents of northeastern New Mexico.  At the time, Raton mayor Joe Apache said the train’s visit would give his community a view of what kind of transportation project was possible in the future. Though the Rail Runer is described as a “commuter” train to serve the Rio Grande corridor, the state of New Mexico acquired the track all the way to the Colorado border as part of the project.

The Rail Runner made a four-hour stop in Raton on Saturday July 25, then sat on a siding for 4 1/2 hours the following day in Las Vegas.  During this time, the train was not carrying passengers or collecting fares.

The cost of this overnight excursion to taxpayers?  $14,660.88.  And that’s not including New Mexico Gross Receipts Taxes, according to Wendy Vigil, of the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments.  Add in NMGRT and the tab to taxpayers for this outing was nearly $16,000.

The amount of money spent on showing off the Rail Runner in Raton and Las Vegas is close to the annual salary of many elementary and secondary school teaching assistants in New Mexico.  The median teaching assistant salary in the Albuquerque metro area is just over $16,000.

The cost of this promotional trip was only now made public even though New Mexico Watchdog submitted a public records request to MRGCOG on July 30, 2009.  The request was submitted to Augusta Meyers, the MRCOG’s public information officer.  She responded by telephone to inform us that the request had been put “on the desk” of Lawrence Rael, who was then MRCOG’s executive director.  He has since resigned from that position in order to seek the Democratic Party nomination for Lt. Governor.  We followed up with another telephone call when we did not receive any response in accordance with procedures and timetables established by the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Request.  But Meyer’s call was the last we heard on our request for half a year.

We recently contacted Chris Blewett, who oversees Rail Runner operations for the MRCOG.  We informed him that we had received no response to our document request.  Mr. Blewett, from our experience, has been exemplary in responding to public records requests.  Though our reporting has been critical of the costs of the Rail Runner, he nonetheless has always been professional and forthcoming.  We finally received this information not long after contacting Mr. Blewett.

There are no plans to extend Rail Runner service to Raton or Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.  The Rail Runner is running an annual shortfall between its operating revenue and costs of over $19 million.  In order to maintain service along its established line, the train has required infusions of federal stimulus money and transfers of funds from other transportation budgets.  We reported on the Rail Runner’s red ink in our 2/22/10 report “Rail Runner Costs Eating New Mexico Alive.”

Related Story:  Lawrence Rael campaigns in Raton.