(The following story by Garry Duffy appeared on the Tucson Citizen website on April 12.)
TUCSON, Ariz. — Safety and cost concerns about Union Pacific’s plans to construct a new track parallel to its existing route through much of Arizona, will be discussed by the Arizona Corporation Commission at a town hall meeting here Wednesday.
The improvements would require 50 new or improved railroad crossings in southern and central Arizona.
That has some commission members questioning how safe the new crossings would be and suggesting that some, if not most, of the new crossings be either underpasses or overpasses.
“It is going to impact numerous communities, including the southern part of the state and in Pima County,” ACC Commissioner Bill Mundell said Tuesday.
The railroad plans to run a double-track line from El Paso to south of Phoenix. An additional parallel set of tracks would run from El Paso to the New Mexico line. Double tracks already exist from there to Tucson. New double-tracking would be built between Tucson and where the railroad’s line heads west to California, south of Phoenix.
Union Pacific officials are making the improvements in anticipation of dramatic increases in freight traffic in the next 20 years moving through Arizona to and from ports in California, much of it from China and other Pacific Rim countries where commercial and industrial development are booming.
Cost – and who pays for needed safety improvements – will be a major concern to communities through which the railroad line passes.
Mundell noted that federal laws dating back to the 19th century allow railroads, not only Union Pacific, to toss off most of the cost of crossings to affected communities.
“Traditionally, railroads pay only 5 percent of those costs,” Mundell said. “Local communities and agencies pay the remaining 95 percent.”
Union Pacific has agreed to spend $18 million to build new at-grade crossings or improve existing ones, Mark Davis, a UP spokesman in San Francisco, said Wednesday.
The railroad assigned staff to meet with officials of affected communities and transportation agencies along the route of the planned double-tracking. They visited 43 of the 50 planned crossing sites.
“All of the crossings reviewed by Union Pacific, controlling road authorities and ACC staff supported modifying the crossings with enhancements such as warning device upgrades, enhanced electronic circuitry and new concrete surfaces installed between the rails for a smoother ride for vehicles,” Davis said.
But none of the reviewed crossings “were believed to be a candidate for an overpass or underpass,” he added.
Of the remaining seven crossings, two were reviewed earlier and five will be reviewed soon, Davis said.
Elimination of at-grade railroad crossings in Tucson was approved by voters last May in the Regional Transportation Authority’s 20-year improvement plan.
Included for elimination is the crossing at Sixth Street and Ninth Avenue, west of Stone Avenue, in the downtown area. It will be replaced by an underpass – funded by revenues from the half-cent sales tax approved by voters along with the RTA plan.
The meeting is open to the public and will be held at 6 p.m. at the Arizona State Office Building, 400 W. Congress St., Room 222.