Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico transportation officials say the states don’t have funding to save Amtrak’s Southwest Chief route through the three states.

The Southwest Chief, which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles, is Amtrak’s only line providing passenger service to Kansas.

Amtrak wants the three states to spend a total of $100 million in the next decade to improve tracks between Hutchinson and Garden City that are in such poor condition the train has to slow down on its daily route.

Dennis Slimmer, chief of transportation planning for the Kansas transportation department, says the states are looking for solutions, but don’t have the millions needed to maintain the route.

The current route agreement between Amtrak and BNSF ends in 2016, after which Amtrak would have to pay the full cost of maintaining the route.

Amtrak officials warned the states that if a solution is not found by 2014 it would move the Southwest Chief route south, through Oklahoma and Texas. Such a proposed route would continue to pass through Topeka and Wichita, but would take service away from Hutchinson, Garden City and Dodge City.

The route had 354,912 riders during the 2011 fiscal year, a 3.7 percent increase from 2010. Nearly 48,000 people used the route in Kansas, up nearly 9 percent from the previous year.