A shorter walk for downtown access, new solar panel-topped parking shelters and a soon-for-real bus line now compliment Belen’s busy but out-of-the-way Rail Runner commuter station.

Handicap ramps and pedestrian stairways added to the nearby Reinken Avenue Overpass now make for direct and safer treks to cross-Transcon Harvey House and the Hub City’s restaurants and businesses. Rail camera buffs are also happier.

Four years ago, limited land availability forced Rail Runner planners to build Belen’s depot on the opposite-downtown side of the always-busy BNSF Transcon freight route, discouraging long overpass walks above the tracks, until now.

New parking shelters, centered in the station lot and reserved for carpoolers, not only shields vehicles from intense New Mexico sun, has locally-manufactured solar panel arrays providing electricity supplementing most lot lighting.

A similar shelter/panel setup, also carpool-ready, was recently built at Bernalillo’s US 550 station. Santa Fe’s South Capital stop has its panels mounted on both platform canopies, is Rail Runner’s first sizeable solar installation.

Belen’s first fixed-route, non-paged bus line, Rio Metro Route 206, will soon start meeting Rail Runner trains, is the latest addition to 60 feeder bus runs, serving eleven currently active stations.

All RR commuter stops now have highway connections to Cuba, Espanola, Jemez Springs, Las Vegas, Los Alamos, Pojoaque, Rio Rancho, Socorro, and Taos.

Two more RR stops, at Sandia Pueblo and North Albuquerque’s Montano Road, are set to open in early 2012.

A closed, two-year-old platform at South Santa Fe’s Zia Road awaits paved parking, part of an unbuilt transit-oriented residential/commercial development.