Santa Teresa rail study discussed recently

the new mexico border authority in coordination with the state of chihuahua are in talks of proposing various rail routes to connect the santa teresa area into the central part of the valley. an organized public meeting was held this past week for the new santa teresa international rail study, and many property owners in the area were not too happy with the proposed idea. abc-7’s iris lopez is live with more details and reaction from this past weeks meeting, iris? the santa teresa international rail study is proposing the idea of moving the rail road infrustructor from downtown juarez and downtown el paso to the west of us. meaning the new rail route would possibly be going through many properties in the santa teresa area, which has some land owners outraged. the study is proposing that the new rail route would be moved as far west from its current location which sits right near the chihuahuita area. bnsf would reconnect the existing line to go west, passing through santa teresa. moving the railway as far west as possible means the rail infrustructor could be built without having any problems with urbanized areas. in el paso whenever a train crosses, it impacts the chiuauita neighborhood, causing safety concerns and congestion in that area. the plan was presented to locals in the santa teresa area, and many property land owners said that they were given no warning about this new plan, and that putting the new rail route would interrupt many businesses in the area. :44 “i’m against it for man number of reasons. i believe strongly in property rights, i don’t think the government should come in and take my land, and take anyone’s land for the benefit of a private corporation, bnsf. i mostly have invested interest in it because one of the routes goes directly through my families farm that we’ve been farming for 102 years, my grandfather bought the farm in this is my life this is my livelyhood.” 1:1 to clarify–this is just the study phase. they will continue the study within the next 2-3 months. the next phase is a detailed engineering and detailed environmental study. that phase may start within a year or so, and take up to 2-3 years.