Rachelle Follmer was at the Santa Fe depot Tuesday morning as the New Mexico Rail Runner Express clanged into the station carrying people Follmer was meeting.

"My girlfriend from Texas and her four children are coming up from Albuquerque to Santa Fe," Follmer said. "We'll probably visit Sanbusco (Market Center) and El Tesoro Cafe (in Sanbusco). ... Basically, we're just going to walk around and shop."

Two other Albuquerque residents, Maleta and Doug Van Loan, said they had a "beautiful" trip to Santa Fe on the train and expect to do more of the same in the future. "We're going to be doing this a lot," Maleta Van Loan said.

The New Mexico Rail Runner is doing Santa Fe businesses a big favor with all the people its bringing to town who live in Albuquerque and elsewhere. Many of those visitors shop in Santa Fe stores, eat in local restaurants and spend their money on other Santa Fe goods and services.

Interviews Tuesday morning with visitors just off the Rail Runner as well as with restaurateurs and shopkeepers indicate the positive economic impact of the new railroad.

Many visitors head immediately for nearby restaurants, one of them being the Zia Diner on Guadalupe. The 22-year-old business is owned by Beth Draiscol. "The impact for us over the holidays has been fantastic," she said. "We're getting a lot of families, couples and people with kids up in Santa Fe for the day. It's a wonderful way for parents to spend the day with their kids."

Anthony Trujillo, who works at Zia Diner, added, "Most of our business (on a recent morning) was from Rail Runner passengers. That was great for us."

Rail Runner workers, he added, "are really good about sending people over here."

Draiscol said some people have waited as long as an hour before being seated. "We don't think that will continue after the holidays are over," she said. "We'll see what happens, but I think there will be more commuters."

Whoever the visitors are, "we're thrilled," Draiscol said. "Ever since we opened (in 1986), we've been waiting on the railyard and whatever was coming out of the railyard."

Another restaurant benefiting from its proximity to the downtown railyard is Tomasita's restaurant, which is just a few steps from the Santa Fe depot. "It's been good for us," said Iggy Patsalis of Tomasita's. "They've just got to get the kinks worked out."

He added: "A lot of trains have been coming, and there are a lot of people on them."

Patsalis said the number of visitors has resulted in waits an hour or longer for a restaurant table.

Tomasitas has some of the few private parking lots in the area and warns visitors not planning to visit the restaurant not to park there.

When Tomasitas is open for business, "we have two people out there watching the lot," Patsalis said. "I think that after people take the train a second time (from the Santa Fe depot to Albuquerque), they'll know what to do."

Like Draiscol of Zia Diner, Patsalis assumes the crowds coming to Santa Fe will be smaller as the novelty of the Rail Runner wears off and riders have to start paying full fare.

A nonrestaurant that is benefiting from the new train chugging into Santa Fe is Chapare, a South American imports business located in Sanbusco Market Center. "We think it has actually helped us," said Will Bussey, manager of the business. "I was here early this morning, and I counted seven people who just got off the train and were eating at El Tesoro."

And after that, "we had a really nice couple from Albuquerque who came up and spent the night and then were shopping with us," he said. "It's been great to have more people from Albuquerque coming up here, and more people from Santa Fe going down there."

When those rail riders first get off the train, some of them head for a small brick building in the railyard that appears to be a part of the Rail Runner system.

But it's not — it's the depot office and gift shop of the Santa Fe Southern Railway, a short-line railroad that runs between Santa Fe and Lamy. The Santa Fe Southern offers excursions and also hauls freight. For the most part, it runs on the same tracks as the Rail Runner.

The New Mexico Rail Runner has nothing comparable, meaning the line's Santa Fe passengers often visit the Santa Fe Southern Railway facility for information, advice and, when it's snowing, shelter.

"We're benefiting and we're paying," said Bob Sarr, one of the founders of Santa Fe Southern who now takes cares of "special projects" for the short-line train.

"We've become an information center," Sarr said, adding the depot also sells bottled water, hot coffee and cookies in addition to Santa Fe and Santa Fe Southern books, T-shirts, mugs and other items.

That information is dispensed by Margie Wright, who runs the store and answers a steady stream of questioners wanting to know about the Rail Runner and its schedule as well as where the nearest restaurant is located and other information.

"We send them to El Tesoro Cafe and Zia Diner and Cowgirl," Sarr said, adding many of the visitors are visibly excited after their trip to Santa Fe by train.