A bill approved by the New Mexico House would use oil and gas revenue to pay the state’s share of costs to keep 
Amtrak’s Southwest Chief on its current route. The House’s vote Monday sends the bill to the Senate where its fate is uncertain. The bill authorizes the issuance of bonds to raise up to $40 million between 2016 and 2025.
That’s intended to cover New Mexico’s portion of a proposed agreement with Colorado and Kansas to pay for track work to keep the Southwest Chief on its present route. Amtrak has warned that the route might change if the passenger train operator can’t reach a new deal with Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which owns the track involved.
The state of Colorado is also pushing similar legislation and formed a commission and developed a line item for funding the improvements but so far have not allocated any funding or found a revenue stream to do so. Several representatives from Kansas communities were in Topeka yesterday to push the transportation committee to support rail passenger service in the state. But no legislation has been introduced.