Twenty-three ARPA members and family members braved what passes for winter weather in southern Arizona yesterday (fifty-seven degrees and cloudy) to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Association’s founding over hamburgers, hot dogs, and barbecue beans at Scottsdale’s McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. Our predecessor, the Rail Passenger Association of the Southwest, was organized 22 January 1977.
Spirits that might have been dulled by the weather, however, were energized by the morning Arizona Republic front-page lead article about Governor Napolitano calling for Commuter Rail, or regional rail really, as the mayors of both Phoenix and Tucson went on record as supporting the idea of passenger trains between Arizona’s two largest cities. The Department of Transportation is hiring consultants to report on possible rail plans, with the reports due back within ninety days. The cover photograph, of passengers boarding the 2000 demonstration of TALGO equipment at the Phoenix ballpark, was taken by former ARPA board member, and now ADOT employee Marc Pearsall.
Thirty years of relentless work by ARPA members has finally made Arizona Rail a matter of “where and when” rather than a “what if.”
Yet we’ve only just begun…
