RAIL TRAIL'S CLEARING PAVES WAY FOR COORDINATION; IMPROVEMENT PROJECT WILL INCLUDE RAILROAD'S NEEDS SANTA FE, MN -- When a Santa Fe Southern Railway worker spent several days in November with a backhoe tearing out vegetation and rearranging soil along the railroad spur between Santa Fe and Lamy, several users of Santa Fe County’s rail trail thought the railroad meant to destroy the primitive hike-and-bike path. Hikers and bikers need not worry, said Santa Fe Southern general manager Carol Raymond. Santa Fe’s local railroad company wants some of the state right of way it leases to be used for a recreational trail, Raymond said. Santa Fe County has plans in the works to improve the public hike-and-bike path along 11.5 miles of the 18-mile route between Santa Fe and Lamy. Until Santa Fe Southern’s November maintenance work upset hikers and bikers, though, little coordination had occurred between the county and the railroad company about their sometimes conflicting purposes for the trail. “It seemed like they were butchering the trail,” said Michael Schneider, who frequently commutes by bicycle along the trail between Santa Fe and his Eldorado home. “What they’ve done is they’ve taken a front-end loader and they’ve made mini speed bumps along the trail,” Schneider added. Santa Fe Southern operations manager Rob Fine said the company needed to remove vegetation and soil that restricted drainage of rock ballast supporting the wooden ties under railroad. In other places, he said, a backhoe was used to restore the company’s access road, and to close some unauthorized trails carved out by all-terrain vehicles. Fine, Raymond and Santa Fe County project manager Colleen Baker agreed that they had not coordinated their plans for the shared right of way. At the time the railroad company was clearing vegetation along the railroad, Baker was developing a plan for a $400,000 trail-improvement project. Much of the county’s plan, currently in preliminary format, focuses on trail head improvements. Baker said the county will review needs for grading and improved drainage along the trail, but the result will not likely involve continuous surfacing of the dirt path. Missing from the county’s initial plan, until trail users complained about the railroad’s maintenance work, was consideration of the railroad’s needs. “What it has done is it has brought more awareness on the part of both parties what our needs are,” Baker said. In some places, unapproved rail crossings had become the main route for trail users. Federal rail authorities have never authorized a foot path that crosses the railroad at the Nine-Mile Road trail head, for example. “One of the good things that has come out of this whole thing is bringing to the surface an awareness of that particular crossing,” Raymond said. The county could begin the process of getting approval for a rail crossing at Nine-Mile Road, but a legal crossing is already available under a trestle a hundred yards along the tracks toward the east, Raymond said. After meeting with railroad officials Jan. 11, Baker said she plans to meet Wednesday with the contractor compiling the rail-trail plan to discuss how to integrate railroad concerns. “We need to talk more about things we encountered on the railroad before we can move ahead with the rest of the plan,” Baker said. Following a meeting with contractors, Baker said, a public meeting will be set, possibly in February, to get more input about the direction of the plan. The rail-trail plan is being prepared by Design Workshop in Santa Fe and Research Technology Inc. in Albuquerque under a contract with Santa Fe County. Santa Fe Southern acquired the Santa Fe Rail Line from Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co. in 1992, then sold the 18-mile railroad to the state of New Mexico in 2005. The New Mexico Department of Transportation has explored the possibility of using the spur for an Eldorado-Santa Fe commuter line, but Santa Fe Southern continues to lease the line for freight and excursion runs. During its tenure as rail owner, Santa Fe Southern sold Santa Fe County an easement for a trail within the right of way that is from 30 to 300 feet in width. Raymond said the county retained that easement when Santa Fe Southern sold the rail line to the Department of Transportation. Baker said the county might hire a contractor, before the start of the planned improvement project, to repair damage caused by railroad maintenance. Raymond said additional efforts by railroad crews to clean up after the recent right-of-way maintenance should forestall any need for county work on the trail before the trail plan is finished. - David Collins, The Santa Fe New Mexican
