Not long ago, Amtrak evaluated the appearance of its many railroad stations. Stately, imposing Union Station in Washington, D.C., came out on top. Scruffy, bereft Albuquerque finished last.

These days, more than one visitor detraining in Albuquerque has been heard to remark, "Where is everything?"

Albuquerque's passenger depot was once a busy and welcoming place. But like the steam engine, that era is long gone.

The original Santa Fe Railway depot burned down in early 1993, and its fenced-in foundation now greets travelers like an off-limits crime scene.

The current Amtrak passenger depot, fronting First Street, and a good distance from the platform, is a small, gray building. Dim and dingy, it's about as welcoming as a box of rattlesnakes.

Native Americans selling wares once graced Albuquerque's station. A handful of Pueblo Indians now peddle items from the beds of pickups or beneath makeshift tarps in the station's dreary, barren parking lot.

Two Amtrak passenger trains stop daily in Albuquerque. For any passenger getting off, even for a few moments, it's generally a cheerless experience.

Chris Leinberger vows to change things.

And it's going to start happening, Leinberger says, in about nine months. Much of the work on a new station area will be done in time to mark the city's tricentennial, in April 2005.

"There's so much memory here," says Leinberger, standing in what is now an Amtrak parking area on First Street, near Gold Avenue. A 60-foot-by-60-foot Tricentennial Park will be constructed in the vacant lot, close by where Teddy Roosevelt strutted about during a presidential visit.

Getting off a train in Albuquerque used to be a social event. Old-timers can recollect actress Gloria Swanson hopping down from a Super Chief in her bathrobe. Others recollect the crowds that came for a peek at the great racehorse Seabiscuit, who was carted through Albuquerque several times in the late 1930s.

Leinberger says there is no reason the station can't recapture that sense of distinction. A partner in the Historic District Improvement Co., which is overseeing a good portion of Downtown's redevelopment, through his Arcadia Land Co., Leinberger is a major figure in the Downtown's new face.

Bridging of two cities
The railroad helped put Albuquerque in the pages of Rand-McNally, starting more than 120 years ago. But with the growth of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, train travel everywhere fell off alarmingly.

In Albuquerque, the railroad's decline became particularly evident when the grand and gracious Alvarado Hotel, a key part of the city's depot landscape for decades, succumbed to a bulldozer in 1970. An exclamation point was added when the original depot, built in the Alvarado's Spanish-style mission architecture, fell to arsonists a decade ago.

Soon after Leinberger became involved in the renovation of Downtown in 1998, plans for the city's 300th birthday party began to heat up.

"It became natural to link the two events," Leinberger says.

Leinberger serves on the Executive Committee for the Tricentennial, and his first, major tricentennial project will be establishing the Tricentennial Park, to be located in front of where a new depot will be built.

Last spring, Leinberger and his wife, Lisa, on vacation in Spain, visited Alburquerque, the New Mexico city's namesake. Leinberger and others involved in the Tricentennial Committee felt that the Spanish community ought to play a role in Albuquerque's 300th anniversary. As Leinberger walked about the hilly, Spanish city of 6,000, he stopped at New Mexico Plaza and visited Angel Vadillo Espiño, the mayor of Alburquerque, who happens to live on the plaza.

Leinberger says he and Espiño came up with the idea of a monument that would bridge both cities, a 20-foot-high sculpture made of tungsten steel that will sit on a granite base. The piece would face that drab Amtrak parking lot. The mayor of the Spanish city liked the idea so much he decided he wanted a monument there, too.

In New Mexico's Albuquerque, the monument will stand in front of the mission-style building that is Phase II in the renovation of First Street. Phase I was the handsome Alvarado Transportation Center, which houses the city's transit services, on the corner of First and Central. That structure, built near the site of the Alvarado Hotel, was dedicated two years ago.

The newer building will be integrated with the Alvarado Transportation Center, and will house not only the Amtrak station, but also the Greyhound bus terminal. There will be additional space for Native American vendors. A light-rail system, endorsed by Mayor Martin Chávez, is also a possibility. The motorized train is on the drawing board to take visitors to various Downtown landmarks and museums, which Chavez has dubbed the city's "string of pearls."

The current Amtrak depot— that grim, little gray building— will be preserved, for it's a Santa Fe Railway original. It will be turned into curio shop.

Cork trees, bronze pigs
The Amtrak-Greyhound depot will cost between $8 million and $9 million, and will be paid for by city, federal, and Greyhound funds. The current Greyhound terminal, on Second Street SW, will be torn down, and Silver Avenue will be extended east to meet Tricentennial Park.

The park, says Leinberger, will cost $400,000, an amount to be raised privately by the Tricentennial Committee.

The monument, which will cost $15,000, will be the park's focal point, for it signifies an economic connection between the two cities. In Spain, Leinberger noticed a number of cork trees, whose wood is a chief export of Alburquerque. Eventually, 12 cork trees will grace the Tricentennial Park. Also planned are a half-dozen bronzes of truffle pigs, animals trained to sniff out edible fungi, for children to climb on. The truffle pig is another export of the Alburquerque region.

"The mayor isn't completely sold on the bronze pigs," Leinberger says with a smile. "But we hope he'll change."

Leinberger is joined at the park site by Victor Chavez, director of planning for the city of Albuquerque and co-coordinator of the tricentennial. As the two men talk of the new face of Downtown, excitement fills their voices.

"I've bought three lofts in that building that is going up over there," says Leinberger, pointing to a corner of Gold and First Street. A native of Philadelphia who resides in Santa Fe, Leinberger has helped to redevelop cities across the country. He says he will live here. "I'm putting my money where mouth is."

An Albuquerque native, Chavez had watched in sadness over the years as the city's railyard declined. "I grew up over there," Chavez says, pointing across the tracks to the South Broadway area. "Twice a day I used to walk through here, on my way to high school at St. Mary's. My dad was a car inspector for the Santa Fe. He changed the wheels and fixed the brakes on the big engines. I remember this place when it was something special."

Says Leinberger: "It will be again."