At the Private Railcar Owners’ Convention in St. Louis this October, Jim Larsen of Amtrak mentioned that as of the 1996 Amtrak contract renegotiation, the west Phoenix branch, from Palo Verde (near Buckeye) to Roll was “on the endangered species list.”
What exactly this means is as yet unclear. But it raises the troubling possibility that Phoenix, Tempe, and Coolidge could lose Amtrak service. Running the Sunset Limited up the east branch from Picacho and then back down - which is how SP would run its freights - would be at least impractical. Amtrak discontinued a similar, but much shorter, 10-mile forward/back move to Cheyenne, WY in the early 80s.
The alternatives run from unpalatable to unlikely:
A Thruway bus from Phoenix to Casa Grande on the SP mainline. While California Thruway service has drawn riders, ARPA feels that buses to a primarily long-distance service like the Sunset would do poorly.
The Sunset could run on the AZCR from Phoenix west through Sun City Wickenburg, and Parker. While this would serve additional population centers, this would leave Yuma without passenger service, and add trains through Cadiz, CA on the already heavily loaded Santa Fe line. Should the west Phoenix branch be abandoned, Phoenix would lose its direct rail route to Los Angeles.
The branch could be sold to a shortline railroad. It is unclear whether any of the other rail companies currently in Arizona would have interest in this branch in which SP apparently sees little economic opportunity. It is be unclear whether such a shortline would be willing or able to host Amtrak service.
Amtrak could pay for the maintenance of the Roll to Palo Verde. Yet Amtrak owns but a few widely separated short stretches of track outside the Northeast Corridor. It might seem hardly worth maintaining almost a hundred miles of rail for the current three trains a week.
The evolving Arizona Rail Authority could purchase the line; or some new segments could be constructed with some existing sections abandoned. For example, a segment could be built from Buckeye following Route 85 to Gila Bend. Conversely, a line from west of Gila Bend running NNW from the SP mainline to the existing branch line could act as double track for the mainline. While these alternatives have advantages, they seem somewhat ambitious.
ARPA believes that returning to the days before 1926, when the west branch was constructed, would be a serious detriment not only to Amtrak but to the freight business as well - and the future economic growth of the state. One only need look at the phenomenal growth of the Valley of the Sun between 1950 and today to see the potential. While SP is double-tracking its mainline to handle intermodal traffic growth, does it make sense to abandon or even downgrade track leading to the eighth largest, and one of the fastest growing, metropolitan areas in the country?
