Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing recently spoke with KOAT Channel 7 about the Trump Administration's decision to eliminate $11.5 million in federal funding for the Albuquerque rail trail project. The funding had been allocated under the USDOT Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Grant, a program from the Biden Administration.
The Albuquerque rail trail, a 7-mile project, is projected to cost up to $90 million. This amount is significantly higher than similar projects, which usually cost around $1 million per mile.
The Rio Grande Foundation has expressed its position that the federal government should not fund projects that serve only local interests, such as bike trails. According to the organization, "We’d argue that even the State of New Mexico should not be funding a bike trail that is of purely local interest. The State claims to not have enough money for roads."
