Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

State Fair bus service

You might have already seen this announcement, but if you didn't...

Mayor Martin Chávez and ABQ RIDE Director Greg Payne announced that ABQ RIDE will be providing weekend park and ride service to the Expo New Mexico 2008 State Fair from two convenient locations. The fair runs from September 5 through the 21.

Service will be offered each Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to midnight, except for the last day of the Fair when it will run from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Fair goers can catch the bus at the northwest corner of Coronado Center or on the West Side at the southwest corner of St. Josephs Avenue and Coors. Tickets are $2.00 for passengers over the age of 12, one way, and free for children 12 and under. The park and ride tickets do not include Fair admission.

Transit officials also announced that service on the Route 66 Central Avenue bus and the Route 766 Rapid Ride will be extended to midnight during the Fair. In addition, Fair goers can take advantage of the Route 3-157 (Louisiana/Montano/Uptown/Cottonwood) and Route 11 (Lomas), which run by Expo New Mexico. Passengers who use regular ABQ RIDE fixed routes to the Fair can get $1.00 off regular Fair admission by presenting a transfer at the gate.

Gosh, that sounds great! Wouldn't it be awesome if ABQ Ride had that kind of late-night service running all the time?
(hint hint wink wink)

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Permalink Reply by Dave on September 3, 2008 at 4:08pm: We used to have a John in this forum and Big ABQ-Like Things, but his family moved. You resemble him...

The news of more late night service is great. I didn't see any special weekend service for the Rail Runner...I am surprised, since there was for the Wine Festival and will be for the Balloon Fiesta. I thought this might be a great opportunity to not only have special weekend service, but have special trains go outside the normal corridor. How about...a train to Las Vegas (NMDOT owns the track anyway), maybe even to Springer or Raton (just one in the morning, one in the evening). The track is in good shape (is used by Amtrak), the speed limit is either 79 or 90, so even to Raton would be do-able. It would be more problematic to go south past Belen, as BNSF owns the track, and I do not think it is Class 4 (so speeds might be limited to something like 50). I know the train has travelled to Socorro and Las Cruces before, so this might be a way to whet people's whistle for expanded Rail service.

Last year, the Lomas bus eastbound kept getting caught in the traffic between San Pedro and Louisiana. I asked ABQRide to close the stops between those 2 intersections and have the bus travel the middle lane. I don't see it on the route detours page, I may email them again.

Anyway John, welcome back, hope school is going well so far.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ayax on September 3, 2008 at 4:15pm: BNSF owns the tracks north as well, me thinks.
There is a train ABQ-Lamy-Las Vegas, Raton, Trinidad aso. Amtrak, once a day-both ways. Sadly, the train can be hours late.
A quartet of states is dreaming of a train El Paso-ABQ-Denver-Cheyenne (?); ▶ Reply to This