Ride The New Mexico Rail Runner

The New Mexico's Rail Runner train offers visitors excellent and low cost options to see more of New Mexico. If you happen to be visiting the Albuquerque area, then the Rail Runner can get you up to Santa Fe and experience "The City Different" all in one day if you prefer. The same holds true if you're in Santa Fe and want to see the sights in Albuquerque. If you go to Albuquerque make sure to stop by Old Town filled with great restaurants and shops.

When stepping off the Rail Runner at the Albuquerque's Alvarado Transportation Center, visitor’s can ride the city’s bus system to get to many popular destinations around Albuquerque. As a great added benefit people may now use their Rail Runner tickets to ride the buses for free. 

The Rail Runner has been around New Mexico since 2006 operating between Belen, south of Albuquerque, to Bernalillo, to the north of Albuquerque. This modern rail service has been a great benefit for New Mexico transportation. The idea passenger rail serving the Central New Mexico north/south corridor had been talked about for many years, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the then Governor Richardson decided to have his administration make it a priority. Grants were given to the New Mexico Department of Transportation to get the ball rolling. The line was extended north to Santa Fe in December 2008. The way New Mexico's population is distributed made a very good case for the construction of the NM Rail Runner system. The central New Mexico corridor is home to about half the state's population. This includes Albuquerque, the largest city and economic center of New Mexico. Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the state capitol, is connected by Interstate-25. The Interstate which can get very congested runs fairly parallel to the  Rail Runner tracks. Because of the topography of the region, alternate two lane auto routes are much slower and longer. Another reality is that home prices in Santa Fe have consistently been higher than in Albuquerque so the Rail Runner allows people who work in Santa Fe to easily commute from their Albuquerque area homes. The Santa Fe Rail Runner train schedule has been designed for commuters but works very good for tourists as well.

The RailRunner (northernmost Santa Fe stop shown at right) really serves two purposes and both are important to New Mexico's economy. As stated above, it is an excellent comfortable commuter train with convenient schedules for workers going between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The added benefit of course is that tourists to New Mexico can also take advantage of the Rail Runner. I think that even in the relatively short time the New Mexico Rail Runner has been serving Santa Fe, it's impact has been felt and in addition to allowing workers get to their jobs inexpensively, the train has brought many more people to events like Fiesta, Indian Market, Spanish Market, Zozobra and other art and cultural festivals. To check on the current New Mexico Rail Runner schedule and the train route map go to Rail Runner NM.