Crude oil to be shipped from Utah along Vail Valley rail line?

Crude oil to be shipped from Utah along Vail Valley rail line?


Under new plans, trains would roll from Utah’s oil fields to Gulf Coast refineries along the Tennessee Pass rail line that runs through the Vail Valley. That railroad line could carry up to 400,000 barrels a day of Utah crude oil, on between three and ten trains a day. 

But currently that offer competes with one from KCVN, a Kansas grain producer. Union Pacific owns the Tennessee Pass line, which has been dormant for more than two decades.

According to industry reports, Union Pacific is negotiating with Rio Grande Pacific for the Tennessee Pass line to make it part of a railroad system to carry crude oil out of Utah’s mineral-rich Uinta Basin.

Kristen South, Senior Director of Union Pacific’s corporate communications and media relations, said UP is in “active discussions with another party to potentially restore service to the line, and we plan to continue those discussions.”

KCVN demanded that the Surface Transportation Board reveal who Union Pacific’s “other parties” are. The Surface Transportation Board obliged, but not intentionally. A filing appeared briefly on the Surface Transportation Board’s website, but was quickly removed, according to the Trains News Wire.

Raquel Espinoza, Union Pacific Railroad Senior Director for corporate communications and media relations, said: “While I cannot provide specifics, I can confirm that we are currently in active discussions.”

Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition is proposing the new Uinta Basin Railway to connect to the national railroad network and move oil, gas and other commodities. The SCIC will work with the Surface Transportation Board to get environmental clearances. Rio Grande Pacific will operate the railway, the SCIC said in a press release.

The Tennessee Pass line runs from Pueblo, over Tennessee Pass and down through the Vail Valley to Dotsero. Union Pacific has not used the Tennessee Pass line since the mid-1990s when UP merged with Southern Pacific.

For more information visit www.up.com 

13th March 2020