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Monday, July 28, 2008

N.M. is pursuing federal approval for train tracks to Mexico

By Rene Romo
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Southern Bureau
          LAS CRUCES — The stage is set for New Mexico officials to pursue federal approval to establish a new international railroad crossing west of the Santa Teresa port of entry.
        Juan Massey, director of New Mexico's Office of Mexican Affairs, said Friday that, with recent developments in Mexico, the state's Border Authority is poised to seek state funding to develop an application for U.S. government approval for the project next year.
        Earlier this month, Ciudad Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes announced that the Mexican transportation undersecretary had issued formal support for a new border rail crossing near Santa Teresa, which will enable Juárez to remove railroad tracks from the city's downtown and establish a bypass from the city's southern edge to the New Mexico border.
        Last week, during a speech in Juárez, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said that his national infrastructure plan calls for construction of the railroad bypass through San Jeronimo, an undeveloped area south of the border and abutting Santa Teresa.
        Massey said a new international railroad crossing would be a major spur to economic growth in the Santa Teresa area, a largely undeveloped area where the El Paso-based Verde Realty group owns about 20,000 acres of master-planned land.
        "What (the border crossing) would mean would be more development on the Mexican side at San Jeronimo, and the engine of the border economically is usually Mexico, because that's where all the heavy manufacturing goes on,'' Massey said. "That would trigger development in New Mexico, particularly in Santa Teresa and Sunland Park and southern Doña Ana County in general.''
        Union Pacific Railroad, which moves train cars between El Paso and Juárez, is pursuing plans to build a huge fueling station and railyard on 1,600 acres of desert in the Santa Teresa area, and is awaiting completion of a land swap between the state Land Office and the federal Bureau of Land Management that would make land available for the project.
        Like Union Pacific, BNSF Railway Co. also crosses railroad cars between El Paso and Juárez — about 200 cars per day in BNSF's case. But BNSF prefers that Mexico first pursue several steps to enhance cross-border railroad crossings before building a bypass around Juárez. Those steps, said BNSF spokesman Joe Faust, include building a series of highway overpasses and underpasses to relieve traffic problems caused by the Juárez train traffic, and increasing the crossing's daily hours of operation, now only eight hours per day.
        "Our position is clear to officials on both sides of the border as to what we would like to see happen before we explore our options in the Santa Teresa area,'' Faust said.
        A Taiwanese company, Foxconn, this month launched construction of the first maquiladora complex in San Jeronimo. That plant is expected to employ up to 20,000 workers within four years and, coupled with Mexico's plan to build a new border highway from western Juárez to San Jeronimo, spur more industrial development.
        A new railroad crossing at Santa Teresa, Massey said, will only attract more maquiladoras, or assembly plants.
        The proposed location for the railroad crossing is 3.5 miles west of the Santa Teresa port of entry, on the edge of the land owned by Verde Realty, said Jaime Campos, executive director of the New Mexico Border Authority.
        If a new crossing is opened, New Mexico will consider building a seven- to 10-mile long railroad spur from the crossing to the Union Pacific railyard, Campos said.