Arizona Rail Passenger Association

By J. Craig Anderson,East Valley Tribune
November 30, 2006
Union Pacific Railroad steamed past the only significant political barrier in its effort to build a regional switching yard 60 miles southeast of the Valley, with the Pinal County Board of Supervisors unanimously approving a crucial land-use change Wednesday.

Still, opponents of the project said they will continue efforts to derail the project via voter referendum or an appeal to state officials.

The board voted 3-0 to allow industrial activity on land previously designated “development-sensitive” despite the presence of scores of opponents who spoke passionately against the project, which would place a facility containing at least 36 side-by-side train tracks near Picacho Peak State Park…

Rest of the story:
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=79829

Chris Hawley
Arizona Republic Mexico City Bureau

Jan. 6, 2006 12:00 AM MEXICO CITY – High-speed bullet trains whooshing across the Mexican countryside. Electric commuter trains slicing through Mexico City. Gleaming new train stations and state-of-the-art switching systems.

It’s all part of an ambitious, multibillion-dollar plan to revive train travel in Mexico, a business that was mostly abandoned in 2001 after decades of mismanagement and long, uncomfortable journeys in aging rail cars.

Now construction crews are tearing up streets along the weed-covered rails leading into Mexico City’s crumbling Buenavista station, preparing the way for a new $5 billion commuter-rail system that officials are calling the Suburban Train…

Rest of the story at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0106mextrain06.html

The impact of state population growth on transportation is forcing a new, regional perspective–especially for those who regularly make the dreary commute to Phoenix.While Interstate 10 construction gets worse, old ideas are resurfacing, particularly in the Phoenix-Tucson transportation corridor. It’s that stretch of highway where a commuter train was proposed along the Union Pacific tracks and then shelved on the count of sloth.

Now, the proposal’s back…

“There is a movement underway for a commuter rail as opposed to light rail in both the East and West (Phoenix) Valley,” says William Lindley, treasurer and past president of the Arizona Rail Passenger Association. Those commuter lines would connect Phoenix to such towns as Goodyear, Avendale, Buckey and others.

“Commuter rail is what you need to move people from the suburbs to the cities,” says Lindley. “But inter-city rail is also needed to move people over longer distances…”

Rest of the story in the Tucson Weekly

Arizona Republic 5 February 2002, by Laurence Arnold, QUOTES: “Amtrak officials have compiled a tentative list of 18 long-distance routes that could be cut this fall unless the government drastically increases the money it spends on passenger rail. Among them: the Sunset Limited, which passes through Tucson on its way to Orlando, Fla., from Los Angeles; the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles… The scaled-back passenger train network would consist primarily of several lines in the Northeast, the Auto Train between Virginia and Florida, connections between Chicago and other Midwest cities, and a number of routes inside California.”