By Mark Cowling | Florence Reminder & Blade Tribune
As the state ponders a future commuter rail service between Phoenix and Tucson, it hasn’t done enough to gather input from Pinal County citizens, Florence Town Council members told a state transportation planner at Monday’s council meeting.
“The time you chose to conduct your survey is not in our favor. We hope you recognize that,” council member Tara Walter told ADOT.
“We still feel we’ve been slighted to a certain degree,” Mayor Tom Rankin added.
Florence Community Development Director Mark Eckhoff told the council the commuter rail is “a very long-term project, but important.” Florence favors a route within the proposed north-south freeway corridor.
Carlos Lopez, rail planning program manager for the Arizona Department of Transportation, told the council out of 140 potential routes in 2011, ADOT is now looking at the final three, and plans to have a draft environmental document available for public comment in the fall. It could select the preferred corridor at the end of the calendar year.
