The “new normal” Railrunner ridership has leveled off at a new, lower level than before COVID

As the Rio Grande Foundation does every year we recently requested and received our request for annual ridership numbers on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. As we have noted in the past the Rail Runner has been a massive money loser for the State of New Mexico from day one. Sadly, even though ridership had declined massively from the train’s early days and then collapsed during COVID, the train’s annual ridership has leveled off around the 600,000 number.

That, of course is a far cry from pre-COVID ridership numbers and even a further cry from the more than one million riders who took the train annually from 2010-2014.

Furthermore, while the train was sold as being beneficial to the environment, but as the Legislative Finance Committee pointed out in an October 2024 report, “while public transit can reduce carbon emissions, current NMRX ridership levels are low enough that, in FY24, train service generated over 2,000 more tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) than replacement car trips.”

In other words, not only is the Rail Runner a money loser for New Mexico, but it harms the environment at current ridership levels.