3. Passenger Rail and Car-free Housing in Arizona

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Supply and demand established online
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Dynamic pay-per-use rate agreed
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Trading-in private cars
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Capital and operational costs combined
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Return on investment from VCC
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Voluntary Carbon Credits bought by polluters
Passenger rail needs car-free housing along its route and car-free housing needs passenger rail. A 'Transport Group' leverages their combined funding from 3 sources: The future savings made by owning fewer cars, Road Usage Charging and Carbon Credits.
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 has left 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 financial stalemate.
The interdependence of passenger rail and car-free housing could be realised by a Transport Group that involves 3 different blockchain tokens:
• Token 1: Bought by residents of car-free housing with proceeds from selling cars. Revenue from the new rail service is shared with token holders, providing a return on investment (similar to ELOOP ONE). 20,000 new homes involves selling 40,000 cars, raising $800 million. Token 1 also avoids a 'carbon rebound', where this money could otherwise be used for carbon intensive activities such as flying.
• Token 2: Voluntary Carbon Credits (VCC) issued based on reduced emissions from owning fewer cars, included in rent of car-free housing, provides a return on investment, using Transport Group validation of reduced car ownership. Reducing 40,000 cars car generate VCC with a value of $10 million as a return on $200 million. VCC can be sold to other polluters on an VCC Market.
• Token 3: Bought by people who remain car owners, as part of their payments for road usage charging (RUC). This could be Token 2 bought by drivers from the residents of car-free housing.
Forming such a Transport Group could link an estimated 20% of the capital 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, and develop new rail infrastructure.
The ‘Transport Group’ in this case involves:
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Car-free housing developer Culdesac
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High speed rail developer Brightline West, or Amtrak
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Arizona DOT
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Car drivers' pay-per-mile RUC charges
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Carbon Credits: Gold Standard
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