Yep, the west end of the Phoenix to Maricopa line is out of service. And, in this case SP and Arizona's politicians apparently decided to let the terrorist's "win", and decided to shut down the line less than a year after the biggest unsolved domestic terrorist attack in recent years, of the Sunset Limited, shortly before the UP merger was final.

And yep, based on the work of folks like Dr. Ronald C. Scheck, there would probably be significant demand between PHX and LAUPT, if service level were sufficient, and travel times could be brought down to 6 hours or less. But, we can't even get loan guarantees for the Vegas HSR, which would allow an ultimate under 4 hour time from LA to Vegas via ML and Palmdale, and would be profitable. And, over twenty years after the first LAUPT run through studies showed the significant operational, travel time, and cost savings of that project, we still are at least a minimum of 7 years away from any likely completion.

Let's face it, unfortunately, when it comes to infrastructure, and especially rail infrastructure, America is in danger of becoming a true third world "kleptocracy", where billions are syphoned off and being squandered on a fiasco like CAHSRA, that doesn't actually meet any of our most pressing travel needs (although apparently really helps with political campaign fundraising). All of this being pissed away, while we can't seem to fund many of the dozens of more cost effective rail projects benefiting tens of millions of rail passengers and motorists (stuck in stopped traffic right this minute) in our most congested inter-urban corridors, and our aging "third world" infrastructure is really looking like $#it........

So don't hold your breath waiting for intercity service to come back to Phoenix any time soon.