Federal money announced to help bring passenger rail back to the Phoenix area

Gears have started turning in the plan to revive a passenger rail service to Phoenix.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., announced this week that the Arizona Department of Transportation would receive $500,000 to begin planning for a passenger rail corridor that links Amtrak’s existing line, which runs through Tucson, to the Phoenix metro area.

The proposed line will make stops at eight new stations: Marana, Coolidge, Queen Creek, Tempe, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, downtown Phoenix, Goodyear-Avondale and Buckeye. Yuma also will be served by the train line to Los Angeles, according to the project plan.

Amtrak eventually hopes to operate three round trips between Phoenix and Tucson per day, taking about two and a half hours each way.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego celebrated the announcement on social media.

“Phoenicians are totally on board with getting Amtrak back in our city. This is welcome news. Keep it up, @RepGregStanton!” Gallego wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

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Phoenix is the largest city in the U.S. without passenger rail service, according to Stanton’s office.

The grant funding will be used to “develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for the service,” according to Stanton’s announcement, with ADOT pitching in an additional $3.5 million in state funds for the effort.

Another $500,000 in federal funding will be used for improvements on the Sunset Limited line, Senators Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., announced Friday. Both grants come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021 under President Joe Biden.

Biden, nicknamed “Amtrak Joe” for his longtime affinity for train travel, has overseen historic investments in the U.S.’ aging passenger rail system. House Republicans have called his Amtrak investments “wasteful spending,” often noting that Amtrak operates at a financial loss. Earlier this year, House Republicans advanced a plan that would have cut Amtrak’s budget by about two-thirds.

Supporters counter that the rail buildout is expected to come with co-benefits for the environment and the economy. Advocating for ADOT’s grant application in a Congressional hearing earlier this year, Stanton argued that the rail expansion would boost productivity and connection among Arizona communities, spur private investment along the rail route, and ease congestion along Interstate 10.

If it offsets car ridership, building out the U.S. rail system would curb the transportation sector’s carbon emissions, which are a leading contributor to global climate change.

Arizona is currently served by two main inter-state train routes: one running east-west through Tucson, and another that stops through Flagstaff as it connects Chicago to Los Angeles. But neither of those lines runs directly through Phoenix. One of them, the Sunset Limited, served Phoenix until 1996 when the line was rerouted about 30 miles south to the city of Maricopa.

Laura Gersony is a national politics reporter for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Contact her at 480-372-0389, or by email at lgersony@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at@lauragersony.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Funds announced to bring Amtrak passenger rail to Phoenix