03-30-2016, 08:52 PM
MountainMan Wrote:Well, it's official...for a eye popping price of hundreds of millions of dollars in right-of-way upgrades at our expense, AMTRAK has agreed to keep traveling through the State of Colorado without stopping at a single major city on its way from Southern Californian to Chicago. Yes, you read this correctly. AMTRAK will make its one and only stop as before, in the small community of La Junta in the far south, and then pass right through Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver without stopping on its was to Chicago.
I guess I don't understand the problem. The SW Chief doesn't go through Pueblo or Denver. It couldn't stop at either of those places if they wanted to. In order to get to Pueblo it would have to reroute 60-75 miles north, then turn east and come another 60 miles or so to get back to its route. In order to serve Denver it would have to run north and then backtrack along the same route to get back "on track". The only other alternative would be to run north to Denver then go east which means you would be asking Amtrak to eliminate ALL rail service to Kansas so you could add a second train east out of Denver. Not likely.