[greyfoxx39]

King Bill's toy train full steam ahead.

[greyfoxx39]

NM Ping

If you want on or off the NM Ping list, please FReepmail me.

Access to the ping list is available to anyone by going to my FR home page

[boomop1]

What is he doing with all the gas taxes?

[G.Mason]

Have they ever thought to tax smokers, or how about people who are overweight?

[samp in mo]

you've got a good story here. I'm in St. Louis where we just added to our commuter rail. Plus we just ended a pricey lawsuit where our mass transit org lost in court to collect unpaid bills from the original contractors. Yours is a city to city thing and ours was an in-city thing so there are differences. From what I've seen I'll fill you in on 2 big lessons I learned from ours.
1. The transit organization from day 1 should want full ownership of the project and not manage from 30,000 ft and put trust in private contractors.
2. Put your stations right in the middle of dense/busy areas and not off to the side with poor pedestrian utility.

We lost money and ridership because those won't followed. You guys can pan me for being moon-battish now.

[greyfoxx39]

From the NY Times today:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is asking governmental appointees and state employees to head to Iowa as soon as they can after Christmas to help him ahead of the Jan. 3 caucus.

Several of the governor’s top administrators already have hit the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire. Others plan to be in Iowa for the critical final days before the caucus.

“I’ve got quite a few friends in Iowa so I am looking forward to going back up there and campaigning hard enough to keep my butt from freezing,” says Environment Secretary Ron Curry.

Do I have it wrong? I didn't think State employees were allowed to campaign on State dollars...of course, the laws don't apply here. /sarc

[CedarDave]

Thanks greyfoxx. The section from Bernalillo to Tramway is one of the nastiest sections of I-25 and it is still two lane each direction. I suspect that they are delaying reconstruction so that people will give up their cars and take the train which parallels that section of interstate.

[CedarDave]

ABQ Journal, 09-09-07:

ABQ Journal, 11-25-07:

[CedarDave]

See the Journal editorial here:

The Little Engine That Could Devour Money (NM-Richardson's Railroad)

Use the keyword Richardson's Railroad to see two years worth of articles and commentary on this boondoggle.

[CedarDave]

Some NM Dims get it:

"I don't think they had a choice," said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee. "Pretty soon you've got to sober up and face the real world."

Smith said he expected lawmakers on the Legislative Finance Committee to focus on the postponed projects and the GRIP program overall when Faught goes before the committee today.

"There's an awful lot of (LFC) members that have just basically the belief there is no credibility over there. That's directed at the (state transportation) commissioners," Smith said. "They make the decisions."

And in other news from the ABQ Journal on Richardson spending other folks dollars:

(Richardson) Health Proposal $200M A Year

Gov. Bill Richardson's proposed universal health coverage plan would require $590 million in new general fund spending over the next five years, with business picking up most of the tab, Human Services Secretary Pamela S. Hyde said Tuesday.

She told lawmakers the additional cost of providing health insurance for everyone would be more than offset by a projected increase in general fund revenue of up to $200 million a year— most of it collected from employers who don't buy commercial health insurance for their workers.

[fishtank]

For a FRACTIOn of 500 mil on a choo-choo train, King Bill could have put together an awesome bus network.

Not to mention all the deaths so far from the train.