The Rio Metro Regional Transit District recently began construction on its traffic control extension project.
The goal of the project is to save time for passengers on commuter trains, including the Rail Runner.
New Mexico Rail Runner Express Communications Manager Augusta Meyers told KRQE News the project will improve the centralized traffic control extension at the downtown Albuquerque station.
“Basically, it’s going to do a number of things to improve the Rail Runner experience,” Meyers said, “but more so to really help the flow of trains in the downtown corridor, which is very busy along that line.”
Meyers said that 20 Rail Runner trains cross the station daily, carrying a current average of 2,000 people from Belen to Santa Fe. When the Amtrak and the occasional freight trains arrive, Meyers said, the flow of traffic can become congested. She said the current plan is to increase the speed of the Rail Runner and decrease travel times by regulating train movements with control signals and switches.
“Right now when one train comes in, somebody has to hand-throw a switch so that it can go to another track, or one of the trains has to pull over,” Meyers told KRQE News. “This is going to eliminate that and make that better, so that the flow of those trains is actually a lot smoother.”
The project, according to KRQE, includes the reconstruction of about a mile of track near Second Street and Alameda Boulevard that currently is unusable. The redesign will create two sets of tracks the Rail Runner could utilize. It will also increase track speeds from 20 miles per hour to up to 60 miles per hour in downtown, which could reduce travel times by up to nine minutes.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.