Comment EI-30137
Received or sent (printed as 8/17/2019)
Utah has a 150 year history of trains dating back to the joining of the two railways at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. Utah shares in the history of the trains to this day. The first railroad into the Uintah basin was the Uintah Railway that had ran from Mack Colorado from 1904 to 1939 which had hauled Gilsonite until trucks had taken over. Although trucks are still the number one method of transporting goods to and from the Uintah basin, we have reached a point in time where the demands of transportation of such goods is exceeding the number of trucks and drivers that are available at this time. Bringing in the railway will not hurt the demand for trucks or drivers. If anything the demand for trucks to run from the patch to the railway will increase as the demands for transportation is increased to carry raw materials from the oil fields of remote areas. Many have said that the railway will bring in more crime. They may be right, but don't we already have a high enough crime rate here as it is without the railway? If anything, our crime rates have increased substantially because of the recession that the Uintah basin had experienced from the last boom to bust. Yes, I can see both the pros and the cons of having a new railway, but I can see the opportunity of our community to have a more stable economy by having a railway than can not only deliver goods out of the basin, but also deliver goods to the area as well. Long haul trucking may be hurt by the railway, but the demand for local haulers will always be there, and they can transport more goods in a day because they won't have to travel as far from the patch to the rail depot, thus increasing profitability by increasing the volume of goods per mile travelled... or miles saved.
Submitted by: Robert Emmons · Vernal, UT
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-36284/comment/EI-30137 · back to the docket sheet