top of page

Passenger Rail and Car-free Housing in Arizona

LA-PHX-123RF.webp

Since sabotage of the tracks at Harqua in 1995, and resulting rail crash, the Amtrak service between LA and Tucson has been diverted south via Maricopa. This leaves Phoenix as the only state capital in the US to have no intercity passenger rail. A feasibility study, for a new line between Phoenix and Tucson, was conducted in 2016 but there has been no progress since. Capital costs at that time were estimated to be $4 billion. Video and Tier 1 EIS report.

​

Meanwhile the Brightline West project, to build High-Speed Rail between Southern California and Las Vegas, broke ground on 22nd April 2024, Wes Eden interview. There are still proposals to develop new rail projects in Arizona but there is currently a stalemate.

 

Passenger rail needs car-free housing along its route and car-free housing needs passenger rail. Funding for both together could be leveraged from 3 sources: The future savings made by owning fewer cars, Road Usage Charging and Carbon Credits.​​​​​​​​​​

 

This interdependence of passenger rail and car free housing could be realised by a Transport Group that includes 3 different blockchain tokens in housing rent:
• Token 1: Shares revenue from the new rail service with token holders (similar to ELOOP ONE)
• Token 2: Sold as Voluntary Carbon Credits, using Transport Group validation of reduced car ownership
• Token 3: Sold to people who remain car owners, as part of their payments for road usage charging (RUC), motivated by reducing congestion

​

Forming such a Transport Group could link 20% of the costs of passenger rail between Phoenix and Tucson with the development of car-free homes in Maricopa and Pinal counties. Based on Opticos design and the example of car-free housing in Tempe by Culdesac, new residents would be able to go car-free, but only if the new rail service is developed.

​

​The ‘Transport Group’ in this case involves:

Screenshot (748).png
bottom of page