Arizona Rail Passenger Association

Adjacent Union Station may still be idle (other than being used by SPRINT maintenance vehicles) but the Santa Fe freight depot is alive again:

After remaining vacant for more than 40 years, a historic Phoenix rail depot opened its doors this week with a new identity as a county office space.

About 70 employees of the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office moved in Friday at the old Santa Fe Freight Depot at Fifth Avenue and Jackson Street. The building, once a hub of railroad activity where goods were shipped in and out of Phoenix, will open in May for a different group of visitors: county residents appealing property valuations.

Maricopa County spent $4 million renovating the county-owned building to house employees… The county bought the building in 1999…

Rest of the story:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/03/31/20110331santa-fe-depot.html

I have entered a large number of field observations into the new wikipedia article, Passenger_Train_Stations_in_Arizona — please help by seeing if you can spot any errors or omissions.  If you haven’t signed up with Wikipedia, it’s free to contribute, and together we can all help spread our knowledge.

The New Mexico Department of Transportation and the Mid-Region Council of Governments broke ground this month at Rio Bravo, south of Albuqeruque, for the new Rail Runner commuter rail station there.  Trains have been running since July between Albuquerque and Bernalillo, and since December between Albuquerque and Los Lunas. The new Rio Bravo station is slated to open this April.

New Mexico Rail Runner Official Site

Angela Cara Pancrazio, The Arizona Republic Jan. 10, 2007 — As the renaissance of downtown Phoenix continues, preservationists and downtown planners envision a rejuvenated Union Station. The 1923 Mission Revival building could once again become a gathering place in the city’s core.

Recent stories of the historic depot stirred memories with readers. Some recall sending their fathers off to World War II. Others remember arriving in Phoenix from the Midwest for the first time on the passenger train. And there were those who went to the station just to watch the trains.

Rest of the article on azcentral.com (Arizona Republic)

Angela Cara Pancrazio
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 13, 2006 12:00 AM For more than two decades, the city has eyed the potential of Phoenix’s Union Station. With all of its space and its Mission Revival architecture, the 1923 rail-passenger center could be a city centerpiece filled with shops, restaurants and artists, officials have proposed.

That vision never came to fruition.

The last train carrying passengers pulled out of the station in the mid-1990s. In recent years, the station has been inaccessible to the public. There’s a security fence ringing the building because Sprint owns it and stores equipment in it.

But lately, with the renaissance of downtown Phoenix, Sprint and the city’s Historic Preservation Office are talking about what is the best use for the building.

“Now there’s momentum for something to happen,” said Barbara Stocklin, the city’s historic preservation officer.

Rest of the story…