(The following story by Heather May appeared on The Salt Lake Tribune website on May 27.)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The only hope of removing Union Pacific freight trains from the 900 South rail line — and the surrounding neighborhood — is to straighten the railroad curves collectively named Grant Tower.
On Wednesday night, a city official and state senator working on the problem admitted it is formidable.
“We have a really difficult task ahead of us,” D.J. Baxter, senior adviser to Mayor Rocky Anderson, told a small crowd of west-side residents gathered at the Pioneer Police Precinct for a community council meeting. He said later he still believes it is doable.
Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake City, said he isn’t optimistic it will happen, which is why he is linking the project to commuter rail.
He said he will work against having commuter rail come near the tower unless state transportation groups help find money to realign UP Grant Tower lines.
“I don’t like the word threat,” Evans said after the meeting. “I’m trying to make this everybody’s problem.”
Commuter rail is a priority for both the city and state. The high-speed transit option eventually will run from Brigham City to Payson. The first leg, from Ogden to Salt Lake City, is set to start in 2007. The line will run parallel to the UP line.
Grant Tower is west of The Gateway shopping center. It is a bottleneck in UP’s rail system, with curves that force trains to slow to 5 to 10 mph. A realignment would allow them to chug through at up to 40 mph, a plan which UP has agreed would eliminate its need to run trains on 900 South, a reactivated line located near homes.
UP has given Salt Lake City until Sept. 30, 2007, to find the $40 million necessary to fix the curves.
There already have been fits and starts. The city is asking for $1 million from the federal government this year for environmental work. After some apparent miscommunication, the request is now a priority among Utah’s congressional delegation. But the rest of the money is in doubt.
Evans and Baxter said U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, needs more justification to ask for money to fix a private company’s rail lines. Baxter urged residents of Poplar Grove to write letters and call Utah’s congressional delegation to note its impact on their lives.
Evans wants UP, which has committed $4.5 million, to put more money toward the project, though Baxter said that is a long shot. The city also disagrees with Evans’ tactic on commuter rail. Baxter said the stick approach will diminish the support of other elected officials.
Evans, who is running for re-election, said he is willing to question commuter rail “because we were dealt a raw deal from the beginning,” referring to the sketchy history of how UP decided to reactivate the 900 South line in 2001 and what government officials knew about it and when.