Weekend service on Rail Runner Express will continue after August, through Saturday train service will run less frequently during winter months and some weekday service will be trimmed after Labor Day, a board voted today.
The Rio Metro Regional Transit District board reversed its decision in June to end Rail Runners’s weekend service in mid-to-late August to cover a $1.2 million shortfall in the commuter railroad’s budget.
The board voted 14-1 on Friday to enact an alternative schedule will save an estimated $2 million during the current fiscal year, which began July 1, according to Rio Metro staff estimates.
The changes in weekday schedules will substitute bus service for two weekday trains. They are: a daily northbound train that departs Downtown Albuquerque at 4:02 a.m. to Santa Fe that served 36 passengers a day; and a daily southbound train that departs U.S. 550 at 4:32 a.m. to Downtown Albuquerque that served 46 passengers a day.
The changes also consolidate two southbound trains that depart Santa Fe at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. for Downtown Albuquerque, replacing them with a single train that departs Santa Fe at 9 p.m.
-- Email the reporter at olivier@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3924
