By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
State and railroad company officials are expected to meet next month on a proposed rail switchyard on state trust land in Pinal County.
In 2006, the Union Pacific Railroad announced plans to construct a 900-acre, 74 tracks-wide classification yard in the Picacho area. The Red Rock switching yard would be located northeast of Union Pacific’s current right of way. Sale of the trust land would be required to make the project possible.
Arizona State Land Commissioner Lisa Atkinstold Rose Law Group Reporter on Thursday the state met with Union Pacific last fall and again in January, and Union Pacific’s regional management affects timing of the project.
“Union Pacific has given us the indication they’re not in any big hurry,” Atkins said. “The timing for Union Pacific might have been more challenging when the project was proposed in 2006.”
She said the Red Rock project has opened up the opportunity for the state to also work more in depth with Pinal County, where trust lands leave a “huge footprint.”
“Now we have the ability to delve into really a lot of issues, Atkins said. “There’s a lot more than just Union Pacific’s proposal.”
Consultants recommended a sale of the state land, but added the rail yard posed significant environmental and engineering challenges
Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific director of public affairs and corporate relations said at a community meeting in 2013 Union Pacific had invested $2.5 million in studies, models and lobbying the state and is still committed to developing a state-of-the-art rail yard allowing trains to refuel, change crews and change cargo,
According to Union Pacific, the Red Rock rail yard would create about 290 permanent, high-paying jobs in the area, besides the indirect economic boost from cargo and people at the location.
“This allows Arizona to have value in the larger logistics chain,” Richmond said. “A truck going from L.A. to Chicago doesn’t make you any money if it’s just passing through.
“The goal for us would be for us to construct a facility that serves as the release valve for the facility we currently have in Tucson,” Richmond explained, because the Tucson location has been landlocked and cannot be expanded.
The proposed switchyard would go hand-in-hand with the rail company’s patchwork double-tracking that is underway, from Los Angeles, Calif., to El Paso, Texas. The double tracking potentially could move up to 100 trains a day. It is beneficial for area motorists, she added, as they would have to wait less time at crossings, “because now we can move two trains at once and do it more efficiently.”
