Some of the buzz in the railroad press has involved the BNSF downgrading of the old Santa Fe main line across Raton Pass, and Amtrak's potential reroute of the "Southwest Chief" off this line and onto the "Transcon" by way of Amarillo, Texas.

This is, when you think about it, not an excuse to remove passenger service to central and western Kansas, but an opportunity for Amtrak to retain that service and establish several new national and regional connections.

The possibility exists for Amtrak to:

(1) Extend the Heartland Flyer all the way to Kansas City by way of Wichita and Topeka, Kan.
(2) Make the Heartland Flyer a two-destination train in the same way Amtrak splits and combines the Empire Builder (Chicago-Portland/Seattle) or the Lake Shore Limited (New York/Boston-Chicago), by establishing a Denver section that would operate across the old ATSF main to LaJunta, Colo. then north into Denver. The new service profile would be Kansas City-Denver/Fort Worth (or even further by also extending the "Heartland Flyer" to and from Houston).

By doing so, Amtrak could:

(1) Retain service to cities in Kansas and eastern Colorado currently served by the Southwest Chief, and add service to cities such as Pueblo and Colorado Springs.

(2) Fill an obvious gap in its national and regional coverage (Kansas City-Denver). This city pair has not had through passenger service, other than motorcoach connections to and from the Super Chief/Southwest Limited/Southwest Chief, since the 1971 demise of UP's "City of Kansas City" and the former ATSF LaJunta-Denver connection to and from the "Super Chief-El Capitan".

(3) Add national and regional connectivity (for example, Bay Area-Denver-Kansas City-St. Louis by way of the "California Zephyr", "Heartland Flyer" and "Missouri River Runners" or, with the restoration of the "Pioneer" route, to the Pacific Northwest).

(4) Add a seconsd train in the Kansas City-Lawrence-Topeka market, since the "Southwest Chief" already uses this routing.

Amtrak would avoid the toughest portion of the current route, over Raton Pass, and also avoid the need and expense to maintain this route for through passenger trains. The line could be retained for future higher-speed rail.

Amtrak could retain its Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M. markets through connecting Rail Runner regional trains at Belen, N.M.

I appreciate any comments and suggestions about this idea.