Arizona Rail Passenger Association

New Mexico’s year-old Rail Runner Express [nmrailrunner.com] commuter-train system carries about 3,000 people a day into and out of downtown Albuquerque, removing cars from busy freeways and a lot of stress…Light rail debuts next year between Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. Commuter rail would connect outlying cities such as Buckeye and Queen Creek to metropolitan Phoenix and run on the same tracks freight railroads use…

Commuter rail is gaining momentum in the Valley. City, state and county officials are meeting, and a study for creating a system in Maricopa and Pinal counties is under way. The Maricopa Association of Governments is overseeing that study, which is expected to be completed by year’s end…

Ridership [on the Rail Runner] has been increasing since the train began operating, and officials say it has exceeded expectations…

Rest of the story in the Arizona Republic, September 30, 2007

July 14, 2007.

…Up to 10 million square feet of commercial space is in the works along Loop 101 on the Salt River Reservation…

Estimates foresee 40,000 to 60,000 people – another Scottsdale Airpark – eventually working on reservation developments. Their one way of getting there is Loop 101, already a parking lot at rush hour…

But we remain skeptical that buses alone will suffice. Transit officials continue to dismiss the idea of running a light-rail extension along Loop 101. Their attention is focused on Scottsdale Road… A route along Loop 101 would feed the northeast Valley’s two largest employment centers, which operate year-round…

rest of the story at in the Arizona Republic

This new website highlights everything from fish-n-chips to fine dining along the route of the new Valley Metro Rail line.

from the Metrolink Fact Sheet, received May 2007

• Metrolink operates 7 routes, serves 54 stations, and covers 388 route-miles (counting only once, track served by multiple routes).
• Metrolink operates 145 trains on weekdays, 40 on Saturdays, and 22 on Sundays. Trains average 40 miles per hour.
• In December 2006, 40,852 passengers rode Metrolink trains on an average weekday. (So much for the idea that Los Angelenos love their automobiles too much to ride transit!)
• 88 percent of Metrolink riders formerly made the trip, drove alone or carpooled.
• Metrolink carries 2.9% of the capacity of parallel highways.

from the Arizona Republic, 29 Jun 2007

Commuter rail in Arizona is beginning to gain traction, backers of building a so-called “heavy rail” line said this week.

More than 100 city, state, county and rail advocates met Thursday in Mesa to begin hashing out the pros and cons of high-speed trains that would link cities as far flung from each other as Phoenix to Tucson and counties as vast as Pinal to Maricopa.

“We must have rail that connects Phoenix to Tucson,” said Mesa Vice Mayor Claudia Walters in kicking off the meeting of Commuter Rail Stakeholders Group…

ARPA members Jay Smyth and Sam Morse are quoted.

Rest of the story in the Arizona Republic