I-80 and Union Pacific railroad near Vista BLVD exit.
The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County is looking into using the existing Union Pacific rail system between Reno, Sparks, and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center to get workers out to USA Parkway.
The proposed rail project would run on the tracks from the Reno Amtrak station out to the TRI center.
For years, travelers have complained about the traffic getting out to USA Parkway.
The Nevada Department of Transportation has a plan to widen the freeway, but that project is not expected to be completed until 2031.
It’s the only project to be approved at the moment, while there are several other proposals that are being talked about.
This rail study is one of them.
“We started the study about a year ago,” said James Gee, Director of Public Transit, RTC Washoe. “That study included a look at the feasibility, potential ridership, potential costs, ongoing communication with Union Pacific, who owns the tracks."
Gee says that Union Pacific does inherit risk and would lose capacity. Part of the study includes working with them to make sure they’re able to run freight operations while passenger trains go at the same time.
RTC Washoe worked with NDOT, Storey County, Panasonic, and Tesla to fund the study.
Gee says the study shows that the project is feasible, but needs more work to make it a reality.
“What we're seeing today is I-80 has about 150 accidents a year,” Gee said. “And so, every other day or so, we have folks that are delayed sitting in traffic trying to get to work.”
The proposed plan has two phases: short-term and long-term.
To get a start-up service, it's estimated to be about $175 million. For its final form, it could be more than a billion dollars.
Trying to secure that money would take lots of different avenues.
“We would look at federal grants, especially railroad grants, along with looking at private investment because Union Pacific themselves, Tesla, and Panasonic, those businesses out there would benefit from the project,” Gee said. “And so the expectation is that they would also contribute to the cost of the project."
The short term would get passenger service up as quickly as possible.
If approved, the goal is to get it done while NDOT’s doing construction.
"This would give folks a consistent scheduled option that they could use instead of Interstate 80,” Gee said.
Over time, the rail could take 14,000 to 15,000 people once the tracks are extended out to Tesla and growth continues at the TRI Center.
RTC Washoe says about 20,000 people work out at USA Parkway.
The study is still being reviewed, and the RTC board still needs to take action.
RTC Washoe needs to look at the organizational framework to see who could operate and manage the system.
