Posted at: 07/09/2009 6:20 PM
Updated at: 07/10/2009 7:36 AM
By: Valerie Castro, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Governors ask for funds to study high-speed rail

High-speed rail train (file photo)

The idea of a high-speed train that would run from one end of New Mexico to the other appears to be gaining momentum.

Governor Bill Richardson is joining the governors of Texas and Colorado to apply for federal money to study the idea, although some say even the idea of high-speed rail in New Mexico isn�t a good investment.

One of the big questions: How much would it cost to build? The proposed $10 million study would answer that question, and many others.

The high speed train would connect El Paso, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Denver.

New Mexico Department of Transportation Secretary Gary Giron said Thursday, "This is exciting. When you think about high speed rail in this corridor, it's exciting, because as you look down the road to alternatives for transportation that are greater, cleaner and enhancing economic development, this really works to get that done."

The governors of New Mexico, Texas and Colorado are teaming up to ask the federal government to pay for half of the study. The three states would share the cost for the other half.

Opponents say the study, and the high-speed rail, would be a waste of time and money.

Paul Gessing with the Rio Grande Foundation said, "It sounds good, it sounds great, but when you talk about the real costs of the project, it's more than a thousand dollars per New Mexican, just to get moderate-speed rail accomplished. It's a lot of money."

Gessing says what the government has planned is trains traveling at 110 miles per hour.

"That�s not really high speed rail in the way most people think of it.� Gessing said. �They think of trains in Japan going along at 200 miles an hour."

He says the system wouldn�t be environmentally-friendly unless the trains were full all day, every day.

He thinks driving to Denver is a much better choice.

"A lot of them aren't going to travel just by themselves in a car,� Gessing said. �They'll have four or five people in the vehicle and that�s a lot more environmentally efficient."

The federal government is expected to make a decision by this fall on whether to give the three states the money for the study.