On 31 January, the Park Service, led by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Superintendent Rob Arnberger, hosted a transportation show and tell at Grand Canyon. In what can be termed as the most significant event involving transportation at the canyon since 1901, the public was introduced to the two primary considerations for mass transportation at the park for well into the next century. Both Babbitt and Arnberger stressed the need for a solution to the congestion and pollution caused by the many thousands of automobiles entering the South Rim by the year 2000 and for exclusion of automobiles from Mather to Hermit's Rest. Highway 64 will remain open to traffic.

A mass transportation system will be required to move the people once they have parked their cars. Here is where the problem begins. A Park Service solution calls for a parking lot and visitor center to be built at Mather at taxpayer expense. From here electrified buses will be utilized to move the people around the south rim area. An alternative solution proposed by the Grand Canyon Railway would provide a parking area just north of Tusayan where people would board an efficient Siemens "Sprinter" light rail system that will take the visitors to Mather, the historic district, Maswik, and loop back to the south entrance. The entire route, if approved, will be on either previously disturbed utility easements, existing roadways, and existing GCRy tracks.

Attendees were treated to rides on the Sprinter and a small electric bus entering service for shuttle service around the Village. Another fuel cell powered bus never got out of the blocks due to a mechanical malfunction. The electric bus will be an excellent replacement to the current worn out shuttles. There were none of the proposed mass transit buses available for inspection.

The afternoon forum allowed for presentations by the Grand Canyon Railway and the Park Service committee. GCRy's presentation was thorough and brought out the light rail system's advantages. Unlike buses, it is flexible enough to handle today's 24,000 daily visitors on a peak day and the expected additional two million annual visitors projected by the Park Service. As demand increases additional units are added that can comfortably move 1,000 people, bicycles, backpacks, wheelchairs, strollers, and coolers at a leisurely pace on a predetermined efficient schedule. The demonstrator is diesel-electric powered and meets all EPA emissions requirements until the year 2005. However, the power plant can be changed to those run on alternative fuels. In short, it is efficient, esthetically pleasing, comfortable, and environmentally sensitive. It can be in place within two years at no cost to the taxpayer.

On the other hand, the Park Service's presentation was woefully inadequate. They did not have any representative images of their proposed system which will require a concrete guideway-electrified curb to be constructed the length of its routes. It is basically an urban commuter designed for airports and city usage. They shrug off some simple facts. Visitors to the Park are not regimented commuters on a familiar daily route--they are vacationers moving at a leisurely pace. To move them will require buses with a capacity of one hundred passengers to leave every 2.5 minutes (for 50 passenger buses it is every 1.25 minutes). Under the circumstances it is impossible to load a bus within these time frames and an already inadequate system is immediately crippled.

We have a wonderful opportunity to pass on a worthwhile legacy for untold generations of visitors to the grandest of canyons. But, for some incredible reason we are still discussing buses and monstrous parking lots on the rim when all we have to do is embrace the future with a completely flexible light rail system that answers the transportation needs of today and tomorrow.

As in 1901 the train has again arrived at the station. Will we have learned our lesson this time and get on board an efficient, environmentally sensitive, and esthetically pleasing transportation system that will carry us far into the future? Or will we revert to type and accept a system that is already inadequate and which, with time will get increasingly less efficient? Will we board the train to the future or will we remain trapped on the platform waiting for an overloaded bus that will pass us by and leave us standing still in time? It is our choice. How will history judge our decision?

Pioneers in attendance were Bill & Sibyl Suran, Gene & Marvyl Wendt, and Al & Rich Richmond. Please feel free to call on any of us for additional information.

The Park Service stated they want to make a decision on this by April. To express your opinion, please write to the following:

The Honorable Bruce Babbitt
Secretary of Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Senator John McCain
Room 111 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510-0303

Senator Jon Kyl
702 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Superintendent Robert Arnberger
Grand Canyon National Park
PO Box 129
Grand Canyon, AZ 86023

Used by permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society.

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