Riding the Rails in Albuquerque— Then and Now

By Harry Moskos - Of the Journal

Sunday, April 10, 2005

SPARE CHANGE: Today's Sunday Journal includes the official publication for Albuquerque's Tricentennial.

Thus, it seems fitting to take a look at what Albuquerque once had— streetcars— and the desire to bring some form of rail transit back to the Albuquerque area.

The idea is proceeding down two tracks.

On the fast track is Gov. Bill Richardson's plan to have a commuter link by rail from Belen to Santa Fe. It would use a combination of existing railroad track and the construction of some 14 miles of new lines.

The first phase of the "Rail Runner" line, Belen-Albuquerque-Bernalillo, should be operational by late fall. The governor hopes to see it extended to Santa Fe by 2008.

Although his plan may be on a spur track, Mayor Martin Chávez would like to see a light rail system operating in Albuquerque.

He envisions three light rail lines:

The most ambitious would be a Central Avenue corridor connecting the West Side with Uptown via Downtown.

Another would provide rail service between Downtown and the Sunport.

The third would connect the city's cultural and tourist sites, such as Old Town, the museums and the zoo.

Chávez believes his plan is at least seven or eight years away, with the mayor rhetorically asking:

"Where do you find $750 million?"

Half of that amount, however, would come from the federal government.

In his book "Albuquerque— A Narrative History," Marc Simmons says the Street Railway Co. was incorporated in 1880 and had eight mule-drawn streetcars and three miles of track.

Electric-powered streetcars came to Albuquerque in 1904.

Those trolley cars operated until Dec. 31, 1927, replaced by a fleet of five buses the next morning traveling over routes totaling eight miles.

Albuquerque's trolley cars are mentioned in several books, including William D. Middleton's, "The Time of the Trolley," which has a picture of a horse-drawn trolley car in front of the Metropolitan Hotel and Saloon at First and Central.

"The History of the St. Louis Car Company" has a photograph of the trolley cars purchased from that company in 1917 by City Electric, which took over operation of Albuquerque's streetcars in 1915.

David Myrick in "New Mexico's Railroads" says "competition of the auto" helped to hasten the demise of Albuquerque streetcars.

But there are those— including the governor— who see rail transit as a means to reduce traffic congestion by getting people out of their cars.

And Chávez adds that "you can't be a great city without it." He describes light rail within a city as a "critical element for the orderly transport of people."

Albuquerque, of course, wasn't the only city in the Southwest with trolley cars. Frederick Venditti's memoir, "Trolleys," tells about growing up in Pueblo, Colo., with streetcars. He laments that "we acted prematurely in eliminating" the electric trolley and "perhaps the superiority of the motor bus was illusory."

Not everyone favors a return to rail transit.

Critics say ridership will not be there, but that may not be anything new when talking about Albuquerque's public transit systems.

A pamphlet issued by the Albuquerque National Bank in 1944 tells the history of the Albuquerque Bus Company. It says, "Capacity loads of homeward bound workers crowd the buses at the peak hours between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., but buses run at far less than capacity at off-peak hours and outside of the immediate Downtown area."

Chávez says, "There is no mass transit system that is self-financing. It is a social decision for environmental and economic reasons. It is the right thing to do."

The mayor points out that commercial development usually follows along the route after a light rail line is started in a community and this is what he envisions occurring in Albuquerque, too.