Mayor Martin Chavez wants Albuquerque aboard his vision to build train tracks to city sites

By Kate Nash

Albuquerque Tribune Reporter

From above, they are flat squares, little more than rooftops and parking lots along the city's railroad tracks.

But when Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez looks at the city's cultural gems from a helicopter, he sees extraordinary places that somehow need to be connected.

"We have all these pearls that have never been strung together," Chavez said.

The Biopark and the Rio Grande Zoo. The Hispanic Cultural Center, the Convention Center and the Balloon Park: in the reflection of his mottled gray glasses, the places are stops along a route to a better, more visited city.

Chavez is proposing to add new rail to existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks to create a network from the Albuquerque International Sunport to the Balloon Fiesta Park. The train would stop at city amenities.

So far, the mayor has assembled a technical team to look at the project and is asking city councilors and federal lawmakers to get on board.

During a recent low-altitude flight over the city in a police chopper, Chavez dreamed aloud of tourists getting off planes and traveling Downtown or to Old Town without a car.

Looking down from 500 feet, the mayor's view was dominated by the zipper of steel that cuts Albuquerque in half.

Some might see two strips of iron that used to bring the city its lifeblood.

Chavez instead saw the roots of a rail system that could highlight the city's offerings.

"This has the potential to elevate Albuquerque on a national level, to have something very special," he said.

But the mayor on this flight had his head in the clouds - figuratively and, almost, literally.

"This is very preliminary," Chavez said. "We're in the dream stages. That's why I'm calling it the Mayor's Folly. I'm sure there will, in some circles, be a lot of skepticism and criticism."

As the mayor officially unveiled the idea this morning, City Councilors Eric Griego and Miguel G¢mez were at his side to commit their support.

"I just think this is a really great project," Griego said. "I think it's an idea whose time has come."

Another councilor who favors the idea - Greg Payne - had said he'd like a little detail on the cost.

"That (the price) is always the question," Payne said last week.

City officials today estimated it could cost up to $90 million to lay new rail to connect the existing tracks to the proposed stops. But Chavez said he doesn't envision the city paying any of that.

He's off to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday on a city-funded trip to speak to federal legislators about his idea.

To justify the price tag,Chavez argues the train could be a way to show off Albuquerque's assets, to bring tourists and attention to a city in need of that and more.

"You could spend a whole day just going from one facility to the next," he said. "People who visit Taos or Santa Fe would spend an extra day just here," he said.

And, he said, much of what is needed to make the system a go is already in place.

"Most of the basic parts are there," he said. "That's why it's so compelling to me. The coincidence of the location of some of the places is very compelling," he said.

Part of the dream train is already close to reality: a small rail system is funded and in the works for the zoo, Biopark and Tingley Beach area. Chavez wants to hook that plan to the larger system he's proposing.

During the recent flight, the mayor drew lines with finger smudges on the helicopter's window: A track would be needed from the airport to the Hispanic Cultural Center; another would link the main line to the Convention Center.

The train also would stop at the Alvarado Transportation Center - the city's new hub for trains, buses and taxis.

Farther north, a track would have to connect the railroad to a spur near the internationally known balloon park.

Chavez also envisions the train trekking through Old Town, with a a new station there on his wish list as well.

But that station and the proposed new tracks aren't the only travel-related things on the mayor's mind.

The mayor's railway reverie comes as he's also pushing for something called bus rapid transit - a system that sets aside road lanes just for buses. The two ideas "go hand in hand," Chavez said during the flight, and aren't competitors for the federal funding that will be needed.

But Chavez knows the project won't be rolling down the tracks any time soon, or even in the 3 years left in his term.

In the meantime, he'll keep dreaming.