Utah transportation officials submitted proposals to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development program in March of 2023. They wanted funding to research possible rail routes connecting Salt Lake City to Boise and Las Vegas.
While the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration awarded $8.2 billion for 10 passenger rail projects, the routes into Salt Lake City were not included.
Mike Christensen is the executive director of the Utah Rail Passengers Association. He said a high-speed rail project would cost billions because new rail tracks would need to be built. However, the proposal Utah recently pitched looked into using existing train tracks with intermediate stops.
“Usually there's lots of focus on the endpoints because we think of things a lot in the terms of flying, where we're only going between point A and point B," Christensen said. "I feel like the power of passenger rail is the fact that it makes intermediate stops.”
He said the route from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas would take at least seven hours, connecting communities along the way.
“Our rural communities in the West here, are really in need of having better transportation options," Christensen said. "So that is really where the power and utility of passenger rail comes from.”
He said critics dismiss passenger rails because they require subsidies. But he says the government contributes money to provide the infrastructure to make flying and driving possible. Airline ticket expenses go to the airline, not necessarily maintaining runways and airports, and the government has to maintain roads.
“I often get that criticism that it takes subsidies to provide Amtrak service and also to provide public transit," Christensen said. "But often everybody completely overlooks the subsidies needed to allow us to drive and fly.”
In the future, Christensen wants driving to be less of a necessity by giving people more options.
“I don't want to take away people's cars, but I want to provide the infrastructure that they don't really need their cars anymore.”
He said for that to happen, cities will have to focus on the needs of people as well as build more passenger rails. Utah can apply for funding again in 2024.
