The Legislature’s craziest idea yet?

In a State with $6 billion in unspent capital outlay money and (according to one study) the worst roads in the nation, one might think that the relevant legislative committees would be focused like a laser on addressing our State’s myriad road issues and figuring out a way to get unused capital outlay $$ allocated to much-needed projects across our State. Sadly, that’s not what is happening at the Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommitee in the Legislature.

Instead, the agenda included a presentation about high speed rail (the LFC just reported that the Rail Runner which hardly qualifies as “high speed” is actually BAD for the environment). Of course, the train is also a HUGE waste of our tax dollars. And even in Albuquerque, the bus system’s ridership remains BELOW pre-pandemic levels despite the buses no longer charging fares. Nationally, transit ridership remains well below pre-pandemic levels and shows no sign of returning to those levels.

But even high speed rail may not be the worst idea discussed at the Subcommittee’s recent meeting. They had an honest-to-goodness discussion about putting an elevated rail system totaling 70 stations, 7 lines, and 103 miles of ELEVATED rail throughout Albuquerque. You can read more details including remarkably detailed presentations here. You can check out the graphic below.

Where would the money come from? The report cites the Land Grant Permanent Fund and Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) as likely sources.

Thankfully, this is unlikely to happen even in New Mexico’s “progressive” Legislature, but it is a clear indicator that reconsidering the expensive and polluting Rail Runner is not “on the table.” Instead they are talking about a new elevated train for Albuquerque.