Several options for passenger rail service between Tucson and Phoenix are under study by the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Supporters say it could be an economic driver for the heavily-traveled corridor, but others caution it would have to be paid for with help from the private sector.
The Passenger Rail Corridor Study includes research into what happens if the state makes no changes to its plans for transportation between the cities in the next several decades.
The study is also looking at whether there is a solution other than passenger rail and includes suggestions for various rail routes.
The Arizona Public Interest Research Group, which supports a passenger rail line between Tucson and Phoenix, recently released a report detailing the benefits of connecting the cities by passenger rail.
“Rail can expand the labor pool and expand market access for businesses, bring 30,000 job years of employment to Arizona, boost local economic development and ensure that the Tucson Phoenix area remains attractive to young people who increasingly want transportation options,” says the public interest group's Serena Unrein.
Unrein says a passenger rail line could save riders $750 million in 30 years as people stop spending money on driving private vehicles between Tucson and Phoenix. That figure comes from the group's report.
“Train riders would also save approximately $150 million worth of economically productive time," Unrein says. "Rail allows travelers to e-mail, text or sleep. Things that you can’t or shouldn’t do while driving.”
State Sen. Al Melvin, R-Oro Valley, who has a background in rail transportation, says a train to take people between the two cities is worth studying, but only as a public-private partnership because it shifts the financial risk away from the taxpayer.
“In the state of Indiana, they sold their entire interstate system to a private entity, and it’s worked out great," Melvin says. "The state received millions and that private entity is operating, maintaining and running the interstate system.”
State Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, agrees that inter-city rail would have to to be funded with private money.
“They could pay for the construction, the operation and the management so we wouldn’t have to," Farley says. "Then we would be able to pay and they would get their money back just a ticket at a time. And they would be able to pay off their investors and we would have a great piece of infrastructure to be able to help grow our economy.”
Farley says no new legislation is necessary to allow a private company to get involved in state-rail services. He joined Public Interest Research Group representatives and others to discuss intercity passenger rail Thursday, just as a massive dust storm rolled through the Tucson area.
“Dust storms along I-10 have been incredibly dangerous and have a tendency to shut down the entire interstate for hours and hours at a time, along with the accidents we have constantly along there, and there really are no other alternatives for getting up there,” Farley said.
He pointed out trains can keep going, even in a dust storm.
State transportation officials are expected to release the final results of its rail study in about two years, Farley says.
More information on the study, including maps of proposed passenger rail routes, is available on the state transportation website, www.azdot.gov/passengerrail.
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