I lived up in North Hermosa years ago, and walked my dog along train tracks daily. There were always hundreds of plastic cocktail straws, bar napkins, beer bottles, human feces, used tampons, wads of wet toilet paper, used baby diapers and cigarette butts littered between the tracks. It was absolutely disgusting. There was also some type of grease every once in a while, in blobs. We saw hundreds of chunks of coal on the sides of the track. In addition, there were hundreds of small fires started along the tracks, but they were usually doused out by a railroad cart that followed. Some fires spread and the fire department had to be called. I called the railroad several times to complain, and no one from the railroad ever came to clean up the dump the train was leaving. It seemed like toilets were flushing directly on the tracks.
If Durango feels this train is our saving grace to get tourists here, then we are pathetic and turning our backs on the fact that raw sewage, garbage and grease are polluting the forest and wild animal habitats, as well as fires burning up the forest.
The railroad charges a fortune for tickets, and I can’t imagine how much money it rakes in every season, in addition to the other overpriced rides. The railroad can well afford to set in place safety precautions that actually work.
Thomas Massucci
Durango
