Tucson to Phoenix Amtrak service may be on track

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TUCSON, Arizona (KOLD News 13) – Hidden in the bipartisan infrastructure bill passing through Congress is $ 66 billion for Amtrak.

The money will be used to modernize the tracks, passenger traffic and the trains themselves and add a number of new lines.

One of those routes will be when the bill gets through Congress and lands on President Biden’s desk, three times a day from Tucson to Phoenix.

There will be an additional daily route from Tucson to Los Angeles.

“Tucson has not had rail passenger transport from Tucson to Phoenix since the 1990s,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero.

Because of this, Mayor Romero and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego wrote a letter to Congress calling on its members to pass the bipartisan law.

Not only is the bill bipartisan, so is the letter, including the names and signatures of all Pima County mayors, Republicans and Democrats.

“We need to think about how we can invest in rail passenger transport and other types of transport services, not just building highways,” said Romero.

A study by the Arizona Department of Transportation that was completed in 2015 shows that it took 113 minutes to drive from Tucson to Phoenix in 2010. It will be 142 minutes by 2035, even if Interstate 10 is expanded to eight lanes. And by 2050, with all that growth, it’s estimated to be 180 minutes, a full three hours.

“What are the prospects of making it?” Asked Senator Mark Kelly in Tucson during a listening session with local leaders. “We have to pass the law.”

The law was drafted by 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans and is supported by the White House. Hopefully there will be a vote next week. The final total in US dollars is nearly $ 1.2 trillion.

“Now it’s about attracting more people and getting them over the finish line,” said Senator Kelly.

If approved, it will cost an estimated $ 1.9 billion to add the additional infrastructure needed to run the service and an estimated $ 77 million will be returned to the Arizona economy annually.

But for Romero, it goes beyond economics to the environment and is part of Tucson’s strategy to eliminate greenhouse gases.

“It’s a wonderful investment in eliminating greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “And for getting people out of their cars to get rid of all suspicions.”

But even if passenger transport proves successful, it will pave the way for the real price, high-speed commuting between the two cities.

Copyright 2021 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

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