The Texas Eagle to California via Midland-Odessa and Phoenix
By Russ Jackson, Editor, Western Rail Passenger Review
Preface
NOTE: This article appeared in the June, 1999 WESTERN RAIL PASSENGER REVIEW and has been updated here.
Amtrak has great frustration with the daily EAGLE between Chicago and San Antonio, and it has been on some "hit lists" of trains to be discontinued. The SUNSET has had similar problems, but its success will be enhanced by daily service. Four major hindrances (assuming equipment is available) to adoption of our recommended project are:
However, because the project below should have been done long ago, we re-offer it here in the Archives for reference when the climate is again right for expansion of the national passenger rail system. -RJ
- The Union Pacific, which will not be happy about adding trains to its heavily traveled mostly single-tracked routes across the southwest until more double tracking is accomplished, particularly in California's Coachella Valley. The UP has made real headway on upgrading the T & P line, but Texas' Garl Latham has said they can say it is not being done with any prospect of passenger trains there. While UP system dispatching has improved thanks to Amtrak getting out of the mail and express business, schedule reliability will be a major factor to the trains' success in this region;
- The State of Arizona reinstating the tracks west of Phoenix which it now owns;
- The connecting train from Ft. Worth to San Antonio (either as a new train or extension of the Heartland Flyer) must be instituted; and
- Amtrak, while undertaking equipment rebuilding, under its financial restraints has unfortunately said there will be no more new long distance trains added to its system.
Daily Amtrak service for the SUNSET LIMITED/TEXAS EAGLE has been a high priority for RailPAC for many years, but we've been without success. Demand for daily SUNSETS and EAGLES remains, as does returning to Phoenix, the nation's sixth largest market.
Rerouting the EAGLE via the ex-Texas & Pacific (Union Pacific) route west of Ft. Worth to El Paso would offer competitive travel times in the high revenue long distance market between the Midwest and the Southwest.
Under the plan we describe here delays to the SUNSET connecting with the EAGLE at San Antonio are avoided, and hours of running time on the Los Angeles-Chicago service are saved. A highly desired additional service between Arizona, the Inland Empire, Orange County and Los Angeles would be provided. Ed Von Nordeck has suggested this could also "be the long talked about Autotrain to Arizona."
SUNSET (Train 1/2) and EAGLE (Train 21/22) The schedules below should not be run until they could be run daily on each route, but they could be run with the three current SUNSETS plus four EAGLES extended past Ft. Worth, which would provide daily service between El Paso and Los Angeles. (Times are approximate, and refer to the T&P 1961 historic schedule.) A weakness of the schedule below is the EAGLE arrival/departure times in El Paso, however. In this plan the EAGLE runs via Midland-Odessa and Phoenix, departing Chicago at 2 PM and Los Angeles at 9 AM. The SUNSET runs via the present route and schedule, retaining the stop at Maricopa. However, the ideal would be a return of the SUNSET to Phoenix.
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This Amtrak Winter 2002-3 timetable map shows the current routes of the EAGLE from Chicago through Dallas and San Antonio where it connects with the SUNSET LIMITED tri-weekly, and the route of the SUNSET from New Orleans to the West Coast. Currently bus service is provided between Odessa and Dallas; planned train service would extend the line west from Odessa to connect with the SUNSET route at Sierra Blanca, Texas, east of El Paso. The route into Phoenix would be restored. |
Recommended Schedule
EAGLE SUNSET SUNSET EAGLE
21 1 Train # 2 22
(Read Down) (Read Up)
2:00p Dp Chicago Ar CST 4:00p
8:00p St. Louis CST 10:00a
11:00a Dallas CST 7:00p
4:00a 3:30p El Paso MST 2:30p 2:00a
9:30a 9:00p Tucson MST 8:30a 8:30p
12:01p Phoenix MST 6:00p
10:30p Maricopa MST 6:30a
6:30p 5:00a Palm Springs PST 12:01a 11:30a
9:00p 7:30a Ar Los Angeles Dp PST 9:30p 9:00a
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The return of passenger train service to the Texas Permian Basin and the Arizona capital city makes economic sense, as each is the location of huge numbers of potential Amtrak customers. Arizona's Rob Bohannan has said he suspects "that the midwest routing would be the stronger of the two routes." When you look at where people who populate Arizona and Southern California originated it's almost a direct movement from the states served by the EAGLE.
Daily service to Phoenix would be more acceptable to potential riders than the previous tri-weekly. In West Texas it would represent a return of rail service to an area of over a half million people which has not existed since 1968, and in Arizona a return of the service which Amtrak and SP forcibly removed in 1996. West Texas has one airport with jet service for 600 miles at Midland-Odessa. In 1996 Amtrak participated in hearings there and the train idea was enthusiastically received by the cities. The large towns along this route are located every 60 to 100 miles, good distances where trains can pick up and discharge high paying revenue passengers. There are several universities on this route. A stop at Pecos, Texas, a small town of 15,000, would be the gateway to Carlsbad Caverns National Park via a connecting Thruway bus. The stop at Benson, Arizona, is near the site of the new Kartchner Caverns State Park which is now a huge tourist attraction.
This plan would be dependent upon the Union Pacific and upon local governments. The UP would not place a high priority on it. The UP moves a high level of freight traffic on both routes, and does not have the Phoenix-Wellton branch on its priority list for track projects (as it is now owned by the State of Arizona). In Arizona, the stations are already in place, while in Texas the Permian Basin cities would have to act to build stations. Abilene has indicated they are interested, and in 1999 its City Council pledged $100,000 to support a staffed station there and to promote the proposal to other West Texas cities. The EAGLE route has important political support. U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) supports Abilene's "creativity and farsightedness in pursuing rail and will be supportive of the city's effort." Senator Hutchison made her comments in the presence of Amtrak officials at San Antonio's dedication of its new train station, and through her service on the Senate Transportation committee she has consistently supported a NATIONAL rail passenger system.
As for equipment: 6 sets for daily EAGLE service would be required, each with a Baggage, Transition-Dorm, 1-2 Sleepers, Diner, Lounge, and 2-3 Coaches as a minimum, expandable according to demand. A 12-hour turnaround at each end is provided. While Amtrak is rebuilding the wrecked equipment at Beech Grove, IN, equipment can be made available even if it means temporarily using Superliner consists mixed with low-level cars running in front of the Transition car on some consists.
Continuation of service between San Antonio and Ft. Worth/ Dallas through Austin must be assured by a new daily connecting train, preferably an extension of the new Oklahoma City-Ft. Worth train, which Amtrak might have to fund without Texas money. What also must be done there is to reduce the running time between San Antonio and Austin. The eighty-miles between those cities currently takes 2.5 hours. An hour of running time could be reduced by adding a crossover with the old MKT line to San Antonio at $1.5 million. Accomplishing this should be done as a partnership with the cities, the state, the railroad and Amtrak. The schedule then should allow connections to/from both east and westbound EAGLES. #
