Posted on 07/12/2002 11:32:51 AM PDT by CedarDave
Friday, July 12, 2002
Train Operator Reaches End of Line
By Brendan Smith Journal Staff Writer
Hammered by losses from the U.S. Forest Service's shutdown of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, the operator announced Thursday it will not run the 1880s-era railroad next year under its existing five-year contract.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission, which oversees operations, stated Thursday it will seek a new company to operate the railroad next year to replace the struggling nonprofit Rio Grande Railway Preservation Corp.
The commission's decision not to renegotiate Rio Grande's contract means the corporation will be liquidated after the end of this year's operating season in October, Rio Grande board member Geof Gordon said.
The corporation has lost more than $500,000 in ticket revenue and continues to lose about $17,000 per day because of the June 7 shutdown. About 70 employees have been laid off, and only a handful of administrative staff are still on the payroll.
"You just can't absorb in this railroad that kind of revenue loss with ongoing expenses and survive," Gordon said. "We can't continue to tread water indefinitely in a bureaucratic void."
The railroad, which is jointly owned by New Mexico and Colorado, links Chama and Antonito, Colo., and the closure has cost the mountain towns millions of dollars in tourist revenue.
The Forest Service shut down railroad operations because of fears the coal-fired steam locomotives would ignite wildfires in the drought-stricken Rio Grande and Carson national forests.
The attorneys general of New Mexico and Colorado have questioned the legality of the closure because the railroad operates on a strip of private property that predates both forests.
The Rio Grande corporation asked the commission to seek a court injunction to lift the closure order, but the commission took no action, leaving the corporation to suffer its mounting losses.
Commission chairwoman Carol Salisbury couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. In a press release, she lashed out at the Forest Service, but she did not explain why the commission did nothing to help the Rio Grande corporation during the shutdown.
"I feel we will need to resolve whether this Forest Service action was an unlawful taking of private property, so that the commission and future railroad operators will know whether they are subject to the whim of Forest Service edicts issued without any pretense of fair hearings or normal due process," the release stated.
In 2000, the Rio Grande corporation was created by the volunteer group Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad to run the railroad after the commission couldn't find any qualified operators. The corporation, which had successful operating seasons in 2000 and 2001, was expected to run the railroad for two more years under a five-year contract.
If or when the railroad will reopen this year is still undecided. The Rio Grande forest has agreed the railroad can resume operation when certain fire-danger indicators decrease.
But Carson forest officials have not agreed to the same reopening conditions. Even though the Carson reopens today to camping and hiking, the railroad is still prohibited from running because fire restrictions have not been lifted.
The Rio Grande corporation's board of directors has requested the railroad be allowed to reopen Tuesday, but forest officials have not yet responded to the request, Gordon said.
"We need to get started or just stop," he said. "If they're going to keep us closed for the rest of the year, what's the point?"Copyright 2002 Albuquerque Journal
Also, the C&T has impressive fire fighting capability to prevent and suppress any fires started by sparks. First, they run a tank car in back of the engine that sprays water twelve feet either side of the track, then the train is followed by a fire fighting crew in a rail motor car which tows another water tank. Finally, the RR purchased a large four-wheel drive military surplus tanker that would be the envy of many volunteer fire departments. All equipment is manned by firemen trained for fighting wildland fires. The State of NM Forestry Department has reviewed and approved the RR's fire prevention/suppression plans and have no problem with the train operating, especially now that the first of the summer monsoons have arrived.
It appears that enviromentalists and their Forest Service bureaucratic cronies, having shutdown the lumber and mining industry, are trying to do the same for tourism as well.
BTW, as mentioned in the article, the joint CO-NM Railroad Commission was no help either. It didn't get off its bureaucratic butt to held the RR after the Forest Service shut it down.
Wyatt's Torch.
Before or after having willingly been raped by the president of the Cumbres & Toltec?
Yeah, I know, same source.This politically-sponsored dissolution of the Separation of Powers Principle, combines all three branches of government into one, that can derive power and funding by manufacturing claims on the use of property. The more externalities are regulated, the more power accrues to the agency to control the use of the producing asset to turn its use to corrupt purpose. When agency control is sufficient to alienate the interest of the agent from the democratic majority, the asset has then degenerated into a socialized commons.
Here is what a former enviral is saying about these green nazis all over America: ( Environmentalist slams 'lunatic fringe')
"Environmentalism was hijacked," he said. "The original people in the movement could arguably claim to be the largest grass-roots movement in America, and one of the greatest. People joined together to do good. Then they made a crucial and critical mistake: They gave power – unchecked power – to their leaders.
"We allow the Enviros to write critical legislation. We elected many to the House and Senate who just blindly accepted that what the Enviros were doing was good. Now we're unwilling to examine what the Enviros say and do to see if it is flawed.
"It is one thing for the Enviros to say, 'We are going to do good,' but if what they do creates profoundly negative impacts on the habitat and turns out to be unconstitutional, it is proof that the power handed to their leaders has corrupted them.
"Right now, taxpayers are paying for 'Green Bureau-babble,' which equates to power. The people who come up with these ideas are power perverts. They don't want to stand for election. They want the power without the responsibility. These people are a perversion of the republic."
Hell Gramps, where you been? General aviation flying has been forbidden over the Grand Canyon for over ten years now. I am just so thankful that I was able to fly over it in a C-172 before the ban. It was an experience I'll never forget.
By the way, for railroad fans, there is a rowdy, no-holds barred (almost at least) website that originates from Chama where all opinions are aired. It can be found at The Narrow Gauge Dead Goat Saloon. One of things we did there in the past couple of days was to challenge the Forest Service's conditions on reopening. They chose, as a condition, a fuel moisture percentage (1000 hour FM =13%) that was higher than the seasonal average and higher than was present in 2000, when the railroad ran without incident following the Los Alamos fire. If those conditions had stood, the railroad would not be allowed to operate at all, except in the wettest years! Once again junk science and an unreasonable requirement were exposed for what they are and sucessfully challenged.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.