It’s still just an idea but already there’s plenty of people lining up in opposition to it.
The idea is to take advantage of both the growing amount of trans-Pacific container cargo and crowded conditions at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach. U.S.-bound cargo would be off-loaded at Punta Colonet and then sent over land by rail on a new double-track line that would cross into the border at near Yuma.
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However, the Yuma County Farm Bureau has joined other Arizona farmers in opposition to the plan.
At the December annual meeting of the Arizona Farm Bureau, the members approved a resolution calling on the state and federal government to reject the proposal. With only 6 percent of Yuma County land in private hands and Union Pacific seeking to option a 200-foot right of way, from the border to the Sunset Corridor line, Farm Bureau members said the tracks would be disastrous to agriculture and undermine a growing area that contributes nearly a third of the state’s $9.2 billion in annual farm revenue.
Leading the opposition, the Yuma County Farm Bureau’s president, John Boelts said the proposed rail line has put the county’s farmers “in the crosshairs.”
“Yuma is a fresh vegetable Mecca. We grow a lot of winter fresh vegetables for the U.S. market and this would negatively impact what we do without offering a whole lot of benefits,” he said.
In addition, Boelts said the proposal will impact the quality of life in the community. Already, Union Pacific is expanding service along the main line to increase traffic from about 30 to about 60 trains a day.
“If you run the numbers they’re talking about for the new port, they’re planning more than 100 trains more traveling through western Yuma County, adding noise and pollution and stressing our old and fragile transportation system,” he said.
The same will be true for Tucson, he said, but the impact will be more dramatic in Yuma, where the roads and railroad intersections aren’t sufficient to handle the added traffic. School buses, trucks and commuters will have special problems getting around, “which is why the school districts have all come out against the proposal, as well as the Yuma County Board of Supervisors and Yuma City Council, which initially supported the new rail line but now has had a change of heart.”
Boelts argues “Union Pacific hasn’t been very forthcoming about what they’re planning,” but what’s certain is that with no local benefit except higher tax revenue and a couple of dozen railroad jobs, “there isn’t a big enough upside to recommend this. I like big projects, but I’m not going to support them to the detriment of my community.”
Ken Rosevear, executive director of the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, said, “The route they’re talking about would cut through prime farm land, residential neighborhoods and a new Wal-Mart. That’s why the proposal is so controversial. There’s no way this wouldn’t affect life in Yuma. I’ve asked the railroad for three reasons why we’d want this and they’ve only given one, about 100 jobs. That doesn’t seem to enough of a reason.”
Mark Davis, director of regional public affairs for Union Pacific, said Yuma’s growers and others along the Sunset Corridor are worrying too soon. He said the issue of whether to build the port is a long way from being resolved. “The feasibility study continues,” he said, “and there’s no projection about when it will be concluded.”
Cost of construction is $2 million per mile, not including the cost of land acquisition, major grading or bridges, Davis said. Because of that, the proposed line between Yuma and the port at Punta Colonet would be a major investment for Union Pacific, directly, as well as indirectly, through the company’s 49 percent ownership of Ferromex, the Mexican rail carrier that will build the line from the border to the coast.
“That’s why the feasibility phase lasts the longest,” he said. “We have to analyze market trends and projected construction costs, just to see whether it makes sense. Right now, we don’t have an answer.”
Looking farther down the track to Tucson, Augustine Garcia, former director of the Tucson-Mexico Trade Office and now director of the Puerto Nuevo project, said the Punta Colonet project is less likely than expansion of port service at Guaymas and Mazatlán. However, any of the options being proposed will mean more rail traffic in Southern Arizona.
“We’ve been talking about this for some time, but I think the proposed switching yard at Picacho Peak has served as a wake-up call for the region,” he said. Whether it’s coming through Yuma or from the south on the Nogales to Tucson line, “there’s a critical mass being reached here.”
Garcia said this will make it critical that there’s better regional planning to take advantage of what’s coming over the next several years. “We need to start thinking of this as a region because we need an integrated plan.”
As a strategic plan for Puerto Nuevo is being prepared for presentation to the Pima Association of Governments in February, he said the Puerto Nuevo staff is putting together a game plan to manage freight movement, including a proposal for a southern bypass, to keep the extra rail traffic away from downtown Tucson.
“We’ll have to talk about how this is supposed to work,” Garcia said. “We’re just getting started, but once we have a mandate, we’ll be going forward.”
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