Subject: Commuter rail gains support 
Date: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:32 PM

Commuter rail gains support 

New study will focus on cost, Valley demand 

Bob Golfen The Arizona Republic Oct. 27, 2005 12:00 AM 

A commuter rail system that uses existing freight-train routes
throughout the Phoenix area is being touted as the future backbone of
public transportation in the Valley. Commuter rail, which would be
bigger in size and scope than the light-rail system now being built,
could whisk thousands of commuters and travelers across the breadth of
the Valley, helping reduce traffic jams and air pollution, proponents
say. Such a system faces major obstacles, including how to acquire
hundreds of millions of dollars in public money and trying to make use
of existing tracks that are already overburdened with freight trains. So
far, no one is sure where the money will come from or how the tracks
will be used. 

But advocates, including a growing number of city officials throughout
the Valley, express confidence they can find the solutions. They point
out that Western states such as Utah, New Mexico and California have
found ways to develop commuter rail. And they note that the odds
appeared to be stacked against a Valley light-rail system when
proponents pushed for it two decades ago. "Commuter rail is something
this Valley is about ready to grab," said Sen. Thayer Verschoor, a Mesa
Republican who heads the Senate's Transportation Committee. "The idea of
getting on a rail line in Gilbert and getting downtown in an hour or so
has a lot of appeal for a lot of people." The pressure of unprecedented
population growth has added a new urgency to a proposal that has been
around for more than a decade. Eventually, the rail system could connect
Phoenix to Tucson and Nogales to the south as well as westward to Yuma
and Southern California cities. The Proposition 400 transportation plan
approved by voters in November includes $5 million to study commuter
rail. The study, which would begin in 2006, will focus on the costs of
such a system, community demand, projected ridership and other critical
issues, said Eric Anderson, transportation director of the Maricopa
Association of Governments. In the fast-growing West Valley, commuter
rail is viewed as a long-term method of alleviating traffic congestion.
The West Valley supports commuter rail, Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs
added, because Interstate 10 has become packed with traffic, and
commuting by automobile has become so stressful. "In transportation, the
Valley is still in catch-up mode," Scruggs said. "This is a way to get
ahead of the crisis that faces us in the future because of our explosive
growth." Verschoor was an outspoken opponent of light rail during the
Proposition 400 election campaign, but he views commuter rail in a
different light, he said, because it would provide faster transit for
more people over greater distances. Light rail uses electrified cars
that operate on city streets to transport local passengers, while
commuter rail involves traditional passenger trains pulled by engines
that operate on their own separate track beds with limited stops. "They
are two different animals," Verschoor said. 

The stumbling blocks 

Arizona rail supporters are encouraged by activity in two adjacent
states, Utah and New Mexico, where commuter rail systems are being built
on existing rail lines. 

But there are major stumbling blocks to commuter rail in the Valley.
Funding is the foremost issue, with no mechanism in sight to pay for
construction or operations. With construction of the first segment of
light rail costing well over $1 billion, it's uncertain whether
taxpayers would agree to another pricey rail system, no matter how
useful. The growth pressure also presents an ironic dilemma. Although
increased population and the Valley-wide building boom are pushing the
rail issue, they keep the existing freight lines so busy that it would
be difficult, if not impossible, to add passenger service to those
rights-of-way. "The tracks are at 100 percent capacity," said Scruggs,
who has worked with groups studying the issue. "If we're asking the
railroads to have less freight on the track and more commuters, we have
to look at what (freight) we won't have coming into the state and how
hard it will be to do business." Solutions being offered include moving
freight-yard operations farther out from the urban core and building new
passenger track adjacent to freight tracks, which would be an expensive
proposition. Still, supporters envision using the freight routes to
connect the East, West and northwest Valley to downtown. "When you look
at the system that those railroads built through the Valley here, you'd
think they were building right into the growth areas," Verschoor said.
"It's really kind of spooky how that worked out." As foreseen, the rail
system would connect downtown Phoenix to the east with Tempe, Mesa,
Gilbert and Queen Creek before heading south toward Tucson. On the west,
the line adjacent to I-10 would go through west Phoenix, Tolleson,
Goodyear and Buckeye, then toward Yuma. On the northwest, passenger
trains would stop in Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, El Mirage, Surprise,
Wittman and on to Wickenberg. If passenger service was offered between
Phoenix and Tucson, proponents note that growing populations in
communities such as Florence, Coolidge, Eloy and Casa Grande would have
greater access. The train could go south from Tucson through South
Tucson, Sahuarita and Tubac before reaching Nogales on the Mexican
border. No dates have been estimated for the start of construction,
except most agree it would be years in the future even if the process
started now, with all the studies, revenue sourcing and design work that
would have to be completed, along with reaching agreements with the
railroads. 

Backing the plan 

A few years ago, then-Gov. Jane Hull raised some eyebrows when she
voiced support for a high-speed rail line that would run through
Southern California, Yuma, the West Valley and downtown Phoenix using
existing track lines. That launched a push to preserve track in the
southwestern part of the state for future use by passenger trains. Now,
a growing coalition of state and city officials and political leaders
back commuter rail. Among them, officials of most West Valley cities,
many of whom passed resolutions in support of commuter rail. In the
growing West Valley community of Litchfield Park, Mayor Woody Thomas is
a longtime advocate of commuter rail because, he said, "We need
high-capacity transit, and that's rail." "We're finally at a point where
we can have a conversation about it which, I hope, ends in a system that
we can use," Thomas said. Such established advocacy groups as the
Friends of Transit, the Arizona Rail Passengers Association and the
Southwest Rail Corridor Coalition have long focused on commuter rail as
a way to connect the Valley's outlying areas with its urban core and
Southern California while reducing reliance on automobile travel. 

"A lot of people are seeing it as the next evolution of moving people
around, especially as we grow outward," said David Schwartz, executive
director of Friends of Transit and a strong supporter of the Valley's
light-rail system. Schwartz and Verschoor personify the diverse range of
support for commuter rail. On opposite sides in November's light-right
debate, they join in support of commuter rail. 

Exploring the costs 

Even though commuter rail would not require the expensive acquisition of
new right-of-way, building the system would be very costly,
transportation Director Anderson said. A passenger line needs stations,
special signalization and street crossings, plus a host of other
improvements costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Along Grand
Avenue, where parallel rail lines into Phoenix tantalize motorists stuck
in traffic, the cost of upgrading the right-of-way for passenger service
throughout the northwest Valley could cost "$300 million just to get
that corridor up to speed," Anderson said. "People see the railroad
there and say, 'Wouldn't it be easy to put a passenger car on there and
offer service?' " he added. "Well, it's a lot more difficult than that."
Finding the funding, which could include federal dollars, would be key
to any discussion about rail, said Jim Dickey, director of the Public
Transportation Division of the Arizona Department of Transportation.
"Before we go out and say this is the right thing to do, there would
have to be some homework done to see how we could afford it," Dickey
said. "But there's no question that ADOT would love to be involved in
the process of identifying a solution." 

Reusing old rails 

Phoenix's last passenger rail service, which was operated by Amtrak,
pulled out of the Valley in the mid-1990s. Commuter-rail supporters note
that the old Union Station in downtown Phoenix and some of the old
Amtrak rights-of-way could be used for the new system. A lot of the
current discussion about commuter rail is fueled by the success of new
systems throughout the West, Dickey said, including New Mexico and Utah,
which are building passenger systems on former freight track beds. In
New Mexico, the first phase of Rail Runner Express, which would tie
Albuquerque with suburbs, is scheduled for completion in December. A
second stage will connect Albuquerque with Santa Fe. Utah has begun work
on a 44-mile segment of its TRAX system that will connect Salt Lake City
with towns to the north. In Salt Lake City, light rail has been a
reality for about five years, with two phases of the system in use and
work begun on route extensions. In both of those states, commuter-rail
builders were able to buy unused existing track from the railroads.
That's a sticking point for the Phoenix commuter-rail proposal.
Passenger service would have to share freight lines privately owned by
railroad companies Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, which
so far have been cool to the idea of adding passenger service. Railroad
officials recently reported that the Valley's rapid population growth
and building boom has put a severe strain on the freight system, with
rail yards operating near capacity and tracks so crowded that freight
movement is hampered. Union Pacific does cooperate with several Western
and Midwestern cities on commuter-rail service, said 

Mark Davis, a spokesman for the railroad, but only the earliest of
discussions have been made regarding the Phoenix system. "Commuter rail
is something in the last dozen years we've seen a lot of interest in
across our system," Davis said. "We have established commuter service
that we participate in Chicago, Los Angeles and the Dallas area, and
we've had some talks in Houston." But any decision about Phoenix
commuter rail would be contingent on the local system's capacity to
handle both passengers and freight. "That's the first step in the
process, to see if commuter rail is a possibility with the current
capacity levels of the track through the area," Davis said. "It does you
no good to operate a commuter system if freight trains are on the track
during peak commuter times."