You hit a major part of the Southwest Chief’s problem: the Governor Of New Mexico doesn’t want to pay for the upkeep of the former Santa Fe passenger main.

Grand Canyon National Park isn’t the only park that got cocked by right-wing train slayers. Bryce Canyon and the Canyonlands parks in Utah lost rail access when the Reaganites killed the Desert Wind in the 1980’s.

IMO, the Chief got hit by another whammy: the lack of decent connecting North-South rail passenger service in Colorado. Colorado would do well to inaugurate a Centennial State version of New Mexico’s Rail Runner between Fort Collins and Trinidad.