Phoenix To Lose Rail Link to Los Angeles
Background
- Q. Where are the tracks that the Southern Pacific intends to abandon or
downgrade?
- Southern Pacific plans to seek to abandonment of that portion of the tracks
west of Phoenix between
Arlington, the location of the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, and Roll, a
farming community northwest of Wellton-- a distance of approximately 83 miles.
See the map.
- Q. Why does Southern Pacific want to abandon the tracks west of
Phoenix?
- Southern Pacific takes the position that, for the purpose of providing
local freight service only, it is less expensive to haul traffic between the
Phoenix area and California the "long way around," or via Picacho,
than to maintain the additional 83 miles of track which have no "on
line" customers.
Class I railroads in Arizona also pay an inordinately high amount of property
tax per mile of track. Every mile which can be removed from the Arizona portion
of their systems results in significant cost savings. Southern Pacific believes
they can satisfy Phoenix freight customers' demands despite the detour.
- Q. Will Phoenix lose rail freight service?
- No, but freight transit times may be increased as much as two to three days
depending upon the efficiency of rail car classification procedures.
- Q. Will Phoenix have passenger service?
- No. Amtrak has informed ARPA that it intends to construct a station at Casa
Grande and provide connecting bus service from as yet to be determined points
within the Phoenix area. It is important to note that, with the exception of
well marketed connecting bus services sponsored and marketed by the California
Department of Transportation, such bus connections are historically treated
more as a means of quietly withdrawing from a former rail served market than a
means of market maintenance. In extreme cases-- Fort Wayne, Indiana, for
instance-- the bus which replaced train service previoulsly serving the market
was itself withdrawn just a year after the bus connection replaced direct
service. [In November 1996, Amtrak ceased serving Tempe with the Thruway
bus.]
- Q. How many passengers presently use the Amtrak service to be lost?
- Approximately 20,000-21,000 passengers annually use the Amtrak service in
Phoenix and Tempe.
- Q. What presently is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without
rail passenger service?
- Columbus, Ohio
- Q. Why is the line strategic?
- The Southern Pacific line in question represents the shortest, fastest, and
least congested rail route between Phoenix and Southern California, and the one
having the greatest number of en-route markets. The West Valley Corridor is one
of Phoenix's prime population and industrial growth areas, and the Coachella
Valley (Indio/Palm Springs) area has one of the fastest growing populations in
southern California. Phoenix and Los Angeles have been significant trading
partners since both were small towns.
- Q. What is the history of the line?
- The Phoenix line of the Southern Pacific was completed in 1926. The
principal passenger trains of the era began using the line on March 20, 1927.
Three and one-half years earlier, in October, 1923, the Union Station had been
completed. Ever since trains first reached Casa Grande in 1879, that
community's neighbor to the North had been clamoring for mainline rail service.
For decades, the Phoenix Gazette on its masthead carried the demand,
"Phoenix Must And Will Have A Main Line Railroad." Despite
anti-passenger rail pronouncements by Southern Pacific and its lobbyists,
Phoenix's commitment to multi-modal transportation did not falter. Phoenix
citizens were actively involved in "Good Roads" campaigns, and also
opened one of the nation's first municipal airports-- Sky Harbor-- in 1928.
- Q. Why doesn't Amtrak want to stay in Phoenix?
- Amtrak has never fully comprehended the potential of-- or taken the time to
understand-- the Arizona rail market. Despite many editorial urgings to the
contrary, Amtrak has refused to offer the West's seventh largest metropolitan
area daily rail service, or make a serious effort to provide service between
Phoenix and the Upper Midwest, the area from where many of Arizona's senior
winter visitors-- a prime rail market-- spend their summers. Amtrak has
historically been dominated by Northeasterners who are more concerned with
preserving their Corridor as a regional commute service than in promulgating a
truly national system.
In short, Amtrak has no real interest in servicing
Arizona or Arizonans' rail travel needs.
- Q. When is this to be put into effect?
- ARPA sources have related that this action will take effect by January,
1996. [Read Bill Lindley's account of the
Last Train to Tempe.]
- Q. How long has Phoenix had rail passenger service?
- Phoenix has had passenger service since 1887.
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