Our opinion: Going down a new path
by Tucson Citizen on Dec. 05, 2007, under OpinionAz needs more than a bypass to cure its transportation ills
Intercity commuter rail between Tucson and Phoenix needs to be considered as Arizona attempts to devise a transportation solution.
Talk about the wisdom of crowds. At a public meeting last week to help determine if a bypass of Tucson and Phoenix from Interstate 10 should be built, 40 people spoke.
All but one opposed the proposal.
So do we, for reasons ecological and economic. Plus, the time is right to once again consider an alternative to building more paths for more internal combustion engines: intercity rail service between Tucson and Phoenix.
Several of the proposed bypasses would snake through unsullied environs in the San Pedro River Valley and Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness northeast of Tucson.
With the road would come development, further stressing water resources. As an official of the Center for Biological Diversity put it at last week’s forum, “This is a roadway to somewhere that doesn’t exist.”
Then there’s the price tag: up to $8 billion, depending on the alignment. That’s serious money – and no funding source exists for the highway.
Eight billion dollars also is the inflation-adjusted projected cost of a Tucson-Phoenix high-speed rail system. If Arizona is going to make a 10-figure transportation expenditure, it makes sense to put the money where the people will be: in the Tucson-Phoenix “megapolitan” area.
That’s the term demographers use to describe giant urban centers combining two or more metropolitan areas. The Tucson-Phoenix corridor certainly qualifies; its population is projected to reach 10 million within 30 years.
That swath of land will need a transportation solution far beyond endless I-10 tinkering. For inspiration, we need look no farther than to our neighbors who have made community rail a reality. For example:
• In northern California, the Sacramento-Oakland-San Jose Capitol Corridor rail line is among the fastest-growing in the nation.
• In Utah, a 44-mile route between Salt Lake City and Ogden is expected to be inaugurated next year.
Clearly, huge questions remain. Will a new set of rails be needed, or will Union Pacific allow the use of its freight tracks? What kind of service will be provided? Will trains be powered by conventional diesel or more exotic energy sources? Who pays?
Gov. Janet Napolitano has ordered state transportation officials to quickly analyze the prospects for mass transit in Arizona.
A coalition of business groups is pushing for special legislative action to consider transportation options.
A comprehensive, statewide plan would be great. And it’s clear to us – with gas hovering at $3 a gallon, foreign oil flirting with the $100-a-barrel mark and the growing realization that this global warming thing isn’t going to just go away – that commuter rail should be part of the discussion.
The train’s pulling out of the station, and Arizona needs to jump on fast.
