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See the Maricopa page.
According to an article, "Amtrak resumes station work," The Arizona Republic, 11 March 1999, page B5, "Passengers could be climbing on and off Amtrak's Sunset Limited here [in Maricopa] by this fall. The delay-plagued project is moving forward again..."
March 1999 ARPA Update
There has been some talk again of building a depot at the hamlet of Maricopa, in Pinal County, 30 miles south of Phoenix.
ARPA has on several occasions voiced its opposition to any permanent construction which would hinder the return of the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle directly through Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun.
The Phoenix Downtown Partnership map now extends west to the edge of Union Station. Light rail will soon connect Phoenix with our other Valley cities, whose downtowns are also growing. This is a time to expand Phoenix passenger rail service, not eliminate it. Indeed, Amtrak is now hauling mail in RoadRailers from Chicago to Phoenix on the Southwest Chief… the mail is hauled by trucks from Winslow. TALGO trains are running in the Pacific Northwest, and soon from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The Texas Eagle runs four times a week, soon to be five. Oklahoma is planning for Amtrak service. All these are promising signs; we encourage all interested ARPA members to get involved and help us make better passenger rail a reality in Arizona. Call 480/947- 5710 today!
ARPA members are monitoring the station site and continue to report there is still no sign of any construction activity at the Maricopa station site.
January 1998At the 10 January ARPA meeting in Tucson, several ARPA members who have visited the site of the Maricopa station ("service to commence on date to be announced" according to the Amtrak timetable) have found no evidence of construction having started there. Plans to relocate the old Rillito depot have been dropped; instead, three railcars are to be restored and placed on a siding as a ticket booth and waiting room.
The application for federal funding states that "Amtrak plans to use the town of Maricopa as its sole depot for 20,000 rail passengers per year whose destination or origin is the metropolitan Phoenix area." Not only is the idea that Valley residents would drive thirty miles into the desert to catch the train akin to believing that New Yorkers would be willing to catch trains in Boonton, New Jersey instead of Penn Station - but it further suggests that the Phoenix Union Station would be completely abandoned by Amtrak. Amtrak has already returned the baggage area to Sprint, who owns the building. Especially in light of growing possibilities for connecting regional rail and LRV service, leaving downtown Phoenix would surely be a shortsighted decision.
All this despite Phoenix's now being the United States's sixth largest city, with over a million persons, and one of the fastest growing.
Amtrak has shown no interest in routing the Sunset Limited back through Phoenix, in spite of Union Pacific's assurances the line will not be abandoned. The Thruway bus has been cut from Tempe, and ridership is low -- far lower than the almost 30,000 who rode the train. ARPA members who have taken the Thruway bus report an average of 10 riders, in contrast to the almost 50 who used the Sunset, a decrease of 80%.
Phoenix Union Station is still open, but half of the waiting area is barricaded and use to store the baggage carts. The baggage area has been returned to Sprint (the building's owner) as a storage area.
A special train, apparently carrying Union Pacific Chairman Dick Davidson among others, passed through Phoenix and over the Phoenix West Line on November 14-15. There have been numerous reports of maintenance work along the line in the past few months. No word yet what all this might mean for the future of this vital rail link.
In a "Readers Platform" article in the September 1998 TRAINS magazine, National Association of Railroad Passengers President Jack Martin calls for a restoration of direct rail service to Phoenix as one of the first steps Amtrak should take in vitalizing its network.
Rob Bohannan writes:
At a UP shippers' meeting on June 17 in Phoenix, I asked the UP official from Tucson about the status of the Phoenix West Line. His response: "We're going to keep it; we're running over it now." "Just for emergencies?" I responded. "Just for emergencies, now," he replied, "But we'll begin using it on a regular basis as soon as we can get the crew agreements worked out."
Another item of interest: The latest issue of Desert Lines, the newsletter of the Arizona and California Railroad (the shortline which operates the former ATSF cutoff from north of Wickenburg through Parker to Cadiz on the BNSF E. of Barstow) contains an unprecedented -- so far as I know --glowing account of that shortline's participation in the movement of the Amtrak West special equipment to Phoenix in April for the baseball special, including a quote from an Amtrak official about how accommodating the A & C was!
Bill Lindley:
The Phoenix West Line is open but apparently UP is using it only rarely. The signal system seems to be operable, with some of the semaphores replaced by new color light signals. In a recent trip (May 1998) out to Hyder, I saw at least one brand new crossing signal, but few other signs of recent activity.
Gary Thorne reports no construction activity at the Maricopa site.
As a result of a derailment near Yuma, Arizona, on February 20, the eastbound Sunset Limited departing Los Angeles on that date was rerouted via Phoenix. The Sunset was one of four trains to traverse the line, and was limited to 40 mph as a result of the abandonment of signals there.
An ARPA member who reads the Federal Register discovered an item which indicated the Union Pacific Railroad had filed to abandon the signal system on the Phoenix West Line. ARPA has obtained a copy of the filing, has submitted a comment to the FRA, and has written in objection to the abandonment. Interestingly, Amtrak and UP had to use the West Line as a reroute again just days later (see above).
See:
From the March 1997 ARPA UPDATE:
At a Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Transportation Task Force meeting on Tuesday, February 4, Larry Smith, Union Pacific's Director of Passenger Services, spoke to representatives of the metropolitan Phoenix business concerning the railroad's enthusiasm for operating commuter rail service in the Phoenix area.
Noting that twenty percent of Union Pacific's daily departures are passenger trains, including those on Metrolink's Los Angeles-Riverside line and the former Chicago and North Western Metra lines in Chicago, Smith said his company is ready, willing and able to serve commuters in Phoenix...
Smith acknowledged that Southern Pacific had discouraged passenger service and had, prior to the merger, discussed abandoning the "West Line" between Arlington and Roll, severing Phoenix's direct link with Los Angeles. "Let me assure you," Smith stated, "we are not going to get rid of this track."
The West Line is shown in the System Map in the Union Pacific 1996 Annual Report.
Complete text is in the March 1997 ARPA UPDATE with further information below.
During the week of 8 October, a number of freights ran across the West Line. There have been intermittent movements across the line, perhaps in response to the continued congestion of the U.P. main line.
ARPA understands the signals which had been removed from the Phoenix Line have been reactivated. It is, however, not yet clear what exactly U.P. plans here.
In the aftermath of a derailment on the Gila (Main) Line, Union Pacific detoured its freight trains across the Phoenix West Line for the second time in as many months. This made for quite a few trains moving through Phoenix and a lot of activity across a line which had seen zero trains in the final days of Southern Pacific.
Friday's (11/15/96) Amtrak #2, the eastbound Sunset Limited from Los Angeles, finally crossed the Phoenix line late Sunday morning and stopped for a crew change in Phoenix Arizona at about 1:30PM on 11/17/96. (This made the train something like 29 hours late.)
However, the train was devoid of passengers or baggage. All that was aboard the train were the crew and some express packages. The passengers had been taken via bus to Phoenix Union Station early Saturday morning, and from there placed either on other buses or airplanes to continue their journey. Apparently, by Sunday evening's train, the main line was reopened.
Is the U.P. learning the value of the West Phoenix Line, which S.P. was seeking to abandon?
Union Pacific Update Monday, November 18, 1996
Around the system . . . in the Western Region, mainline track on the El Paso Division was restored to service at 10 p.m. Sunday night after a four-car derailment Saturday between Piedra and Sentinel, AZ. A transient riding the train was fatally injured. The derailment has caused some congestion between Yuma, AZ and El Paso, TX.
Union Pacific Update Thursday, October 17, 1996
"Around the system . . . a 14-car derailment about 9 pm last night [10/16/96] on the El Paso Subdivision between Aztec and Stanwix, AZ has blocked the mainline. Trains are being rerouted over the Phoenix Line and some are detouring from West Colton to Vaughn, NM on BNSF track. The track is expected to be restored to service early Friday morning [10/18/96]. There were no injuries and the cause is under investigation."
According to observers, more than a dozen freight trains were rerouted across the Phoenix West Line, the first trains to do so since the Sunset Limited stopped serving Phoenix on June 2, 1996.
