The Arizona Department of Transportation announced that the Phoenix-Tucson passenger rail study is moving forward, after the Federal Railroad Administration approved step one of the planning program.
ADOT submitted an outline that contains preliminary information such as the project’s scope, schedule and budget for establishing a passenger rail service that would extend approximately 160 miles between Tucson and Buckeye, a western suburb of the Phoenix metro area.
The state transportation agency is now waiting for the approval of a federal grant in the coming weeks to start the next step in the process.
This phase will take two to three years to complete and consist of identifying the number and location of stations, travel data analysis, infrastructure improvements, capital and maintenance costs and other necessary information.
ADOT’s approved budget to do this is $10.6 million and will qualify the agency for the third and final step of project development, an engineering and environmental study required by federal law.
This phase would take an additional 2 to 3 years and require a 20% state match of the federal grant.
The agency said that Governor Katie Hobbs has already committed $3.5 million to support the planning process.
