- Q. What are the consequences to rail passenger service if the West
Line is lost?
- The consequences to rail passenger service fall into three categories:
national, regional, and commuter.
- From a national perspective, the effect of the loss of the West Line would
be immediate. In fact, the threat of the loss of the line has already been
severely felt: Amtrak has already announced plans to terminate its service
through the Valley as soon as is practicable. The issue of national service is
independent of Amtrak's current restructuring and fiscal crisis. The loss of
the West Line means that Amtrak or any future national rail carrier would never
serve Phoenix, forever isolating the West's seventh largest city from the
nation's passenger rail service.
- Regional rail passenger service would be affected insofar as its potential
for completeness would be precluded. While regional service to Tucson and
Nogales would not necessarily be affected by the loss of the West Line,
regional rail service (which has always been defined in Arizona as radiating
outward from the Valley) could never serve Yuma; nor could joint regional
service by Arizona and California authorities ever link Phoenix with the desert
cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert.
Regional transportation systems thrive, as a necessity, on complete
interconnectivity throughout the region: i.e., most if not all areas of the
region must be served by the system to maximize revenue potential, to achieve
the highest level of usability, and to ensure that all constituencies are fairly
served. Without the West Line, any future regional rail service in Arizona
would be stitched together with fully one third of the region disenfranchised.
- As for commuter rail, the effects of the loss of the West Line are
substantial if subtle. While Southern Pacific proposes to leave the line intact
from downtown Phoenix to the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant (thereby preserving
the potential for commuter rail for the west side of the Valley), the
downgrading of this line from a secondary main line to a stub-end industrial
spur would have substantial economic impact on any commuter system that the
Valley would put in place. The full costs of upgrading the line back to
passenger-train standards (and the costs of maintaining the line at those
standards) would have to be borne by the commuter system. Not only would this
include the cost of rebuilding the track and roadbed, but it would require
reinstalling expensive signaling equipment and rehabilitating grade crossings at
all streets and highways.
The present condition of the line is fully
suitable for all passenger trains; the loss of this line would mean the loss of
a significant resource-- to both the public and private sectors.
- Q. What are the consequences to the Valley's freight shippers if the
West Line is lost?
- For all present and future shippers on the West line, the loss means that
the direct rail link to Southern California-- including to Los Angeles' ports--
will be irrevocably severed. While Southern Pacific has stated that it plans to
continue serving metropolitan Phoenix using the line from the east, the ability
to provide through service will cease to the west. In the most likely operating
scenario, Southern Pacific will detour any freight arriving from or departing to
Southern California through Picacho or Tucson to await other trains.
For shippers of time-sensitive goods, this deterioration of rail service
means that other modes-- most likely highway-- will have to be used. Even for
shippers of bulk commodities, the loss of the direct link to the west will mean
constraints on management of materials and finished products. In an era of
just-in-time inventorying, the loss of the rail mode means increased expense to
shippers and their customers.
Finally, the loss of the direct link west to Los Angeles means that it will
be far more difficult to attract rail-served industry to the Valley.
- Q: What about the line up Grand Avenue? Doesn't it lead to California?
- Yes, the Santa Fe line exiting the Valley to the northwest does branch west
of Wickenburg, with one of the branches leading to Barstow and then south into
Los Angeles. The Arizona and California Railroad owns this link between
Wickenburg and Cadiz, California, east of Barstow. While this line would
provide an alternative way to Los Angeles, the line's primary focus is to
connect with the Santa Fe and carry freight destined for the Central Valley of
California, the Bay Area, and other points north. It does not serve the
populated and industrialized area southeast of the Los Angeles area, the area
served by the Southern Pacific.
The line which leads south from Barstow to Los Angeles must negotiate Cajon
Pass. While certainly a feat of railroad engineering, Cajon Pass is a
severe bottleneck through which must pass most of the transcontinental
freight in and out of Los Angeles. The transcontinental lines of three railroads
share two tracks in this steep, narrow pass. Burdening this line with
additional traffic from Phoenix would be problematic and unnecessary, since
Southern Pacific's line through Banning, California, provides a far superior
entrance into to L.A. basin.
Although the route of the Arizona & California Railroad does provide
alternate capacity, the overriding question remains: Why sever, for now and
all time, the easiest and most-direct route between Phoenix and Southern
California?
- Q. How does this affect the general public?
- Because of the degradation of rail freight service and the loss of
potential for rail passenger service, the abandonment of the West Line would
mean increased traffic on the region's streets and highways. This increased
traffic means that the public sector must spend even greater amounts on
maintaining, improving, and building the highway system.
Not only would this mean more direct and indirect costs to support the
highway mode, it would also mean additional congestion (with attendant loss of
productivity), more dismemberment of neighborhoods for highway rights-of-way,
and certainly more pollution.
In a time when public-policy makers throughout the nation are
realizing that the rail mode must play a part in future transportation, it makes
no sense for Arizona to allow the potential of this mode to be taken from us.