Union Station in downtown Phoenix in June 2019.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure improvement plan would bring Amtrak passenger service back to Phoenix for the first time in decades.
Since the 1990s, the closest Amtrak station to Arizona’s capital has been in Pinal County.
Amtrak says Biden’s infrastructure plan would mean new service between Phoenix and Tucson by 2035.
The timeline is too long on a plan that seems aspirational, said Jon Talton, a former Arizona Republic columnist, Phoenix historian and author of the blog Rogue Columnist.
Talton said one problem is the yearly fight in Congress over funding Amtrak, while every common carrier in the world is subsidized.