A fun fact is that Tucson to LA is one of Amtrak’s busiest segments, and that’s with tri-weekly service!
I was a little kid, and my dad took me to 3rd & Townsend station in San Francisco to take a little SP train trip. The agent did everything he could to discourage us including talking about derailments and how it wasn’t safe. What a nasty railroad.
Go to the All Aboard Arizona website and see our input into the long distance study.
Please go to the All Aboard Arizona website. We’re going to get the Sunset daily and back through Phoenix, but that’s just the start. The Sun Corridor is coming and that will have frequent service between Tucson and Buckeye with additional service, with the Sunset, to LA. What you’re talking about is doable, but the southern terminus should be Tucson. Tucson is a sizable community, and there will be a maintenance facility there for the Sun Corridor. But the Sunset Route is going to be primary. This ties into the Coachella Valley service that’s coming to fruition. If you’re interested in all of this, we’ll be having our Passenger Rail Summit in Phoenix on November 4th. The players who are bringing rail back to Phoenix will be there. Go to the All Aboard Arizona website. Check out our input into the FRA Long Distance Study. We’ve been stakeholder representatives on the study. This is going to happen, but we can use your help. Join us!
Remember too though that the Crescent-Star is coming from Atlanta to Fort Worth. Fort Worth to El Paso via Midland is also likely coming. The Heartland Flyer is going to head north to Newton, Kansas City and potentially north from there to Minneapolis. My point is that through cars on the Texas Eagle via Midland will be faster and Fort Worth promises to be a big hub. The daily Sunset back through Phoenix is the first lynchpin. Amtrak has applied for two grants to make this happen and has also filed a complaint with the Surface Transportation Board to improve UP’s handling of trains 1&2. We’re making huge progress. The Peavine Line is a tougher nut. Lots of options there. Regional rail to the Prescott area with a Thruway bus connection through Sedona to Flagstaff as a first step? Extending a section of the Southwest Chief to Tucson as All Aboard Arizona suggests in its recent input to the FRA? Lots of action on rail in Arizona.
The cost of restoring service through Phoenix on the Sunset Route isn’t an expensive option. The Peavine is tough railroad. The easiest and cheapest alternative is the Wellton Line. It’s still there, the costs of upgrading it are known. That’s the imminent plan. Amtrak has applied for grants from the FRA to make it happen. The route from Tucson to Phoenix is also known, is an active railroad, and the Phase 1 Environmental work is done. Getting the Sunset Limited is neither difficult nor expensive and would more efficiently serve southern Arizona than the Peavine. That doesn’t mean the Peavine doesn’t have a place down the road. It does, and at some point, after the Sunset returns to Phoenix and the Sun Corridor is up and running, the Peavine can be looked at. Perhaps with a Phoenix-San Francisco Bay Area through cars with a revived San Francisco Chief.
I looked at the website and found one map but it didn't identify which line is the Wellton Line.
The Wellton line is the traditional route of the Sunset. It runs west from Phoenix to Wellton where it joins the Sunset Route. Service is suspended, but it’s not abandoned and the tracks are still there. They would be replaced, but it could be a very fast line. We’ll get something up on our website on the Wellton line. That route is important to Arizona because it would link all of southern Arizona from Willcox in the east (we’ve requested Amtrak consider a stop there which would also serve Douglas and Safford via transit connections), Benson (Tombstone, Bisbee and Sierra Vista), Tucson, Queen Creek or Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe, Sky Harbor, Phoenix, Buckeye and Yuma and then on to the Coachella Valley. Yuma is very supportive of rail and is opening a new station. Coachella Valley wants service to Phoenix. Obviously, all these would not be Sunset Limited stops, but the corridor stops would be served by the Sun Corridor. Longer term, high speed rail in the I-10 corridor will augment conventional rail between Phoenix and LA. The line through Wickenburg feeds the Santa Fe mainline and wouldn’t link to the Coachella Valley. That line also wasn’t built as a high speed passenger line like the Wellton line was. The Wellton line was built to bring the Sunset and Golden State through Phoenix in the early 1900’s and is engineered for fast passenger trains.
The active sections have signals; the eastern end was updated not too long ago. The inactive section hasn't been touched. It had semaphores which have been stripped in the years since. It would need all new positional signals.
Actually, my memory is that it was actually the SP that took the West Phoenix Line (WPL) out of service a year or so before the UP took over. But I can no longer recall the exact date. Surely, we can find that somewhere.
And you can book it that they'll want a Kings Ransom, their usual MO!
I mean, Amtrak/AZ could presumably just...buy the line?And you can book it that they'll want a Kings Ransom, their usual MO!
Sure Cliff,, but UP would want Big Bucks which is their usual MO when it comes to negotiations with Amtrak!
I would wonder about this, considering how much has gone on with shortlines over the years with most of the Class Is.
I guess that in many cases when shortlines are spun off, the real estate is not spun off with it, but the shortline company acquires a long-term lease, often at a favorable price as the railroad is interested in the shortline being a success and continuing to feed traffic. Thus the ROW is not actually sold off but can be claimed back when the lease expires.
Dear Mr. Anderson,
I would point out that, as is the case in Virginia, a solution would be to have the state buy the line and then lease it to a short-line operator. The main thing is just to get the line out of the hands of anyone who can say "No".
