D,

I think you hit the nail right on the head. North of Trinidad to Denver are a lot of slow moving coal trains and little interest by BNSF and UP to host passenger trains. The former ATSF is grade separated in Trinidad, but the ATSF line heads northeast to La Junta vs. Denver, so there is no easy access to an anchor point on the north end of the Raton Line leaving it essentially a line from Albuquerque north to no where, Colorado. I doubt you will see the State of Colorado step up to buy Trinidad to La Junta, the State of NM does not want to own a bunch of track in Colorado, and even if one of them bought Trinidad to La Junta it still leaves a railroad with two daily Amtrak trains, no on-line freight traffic, and without access to Denver on the north end so no potential for High Speed Rail passenger trains. Therefore, a financial black hole with few near term prospects for new traffic.