RAIL, THE PATHWAY TO THE FUTURE: Railways deliver solutions for Utah problems.

• Position: RETAIL

While Utah's economy is expanding at record rates, the state faces inevitable growing pains. Officials are working hard to determine how to best combat the problems that accompany this expansion, like troubling air pollution and increased traffic. Utah's railways are one of the critical solutions to future economic growth (transportation of goods) and a better way of life (less cargo on highways and roads).

Lew Cramer, CEO of Utah Colliers and a Utah State Transportation Commissioner at large, is one of seven Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) commissioners privileged to pro bono serve the state after nomination by the governor and approval of the state senate.

According to Cramer, Utah is working hard to ensure that we wisely use all possible modes of modern transportation--especially planes, trains, and trucks--to reach our critical transportation goals to increase efficiencies, reduce pollution, enhance safety, develop our economy, and do it all at a reasonable cost to consumers, companies, and the environment.

"Utah has an excellent opportunity to use the latest and smartest technology to show the rest of the nation how best to reach those goals. Optimizing rail traffic is a major opportunity. Utah must do it, and we will!" Cramer says.

A Multi-Track Solution

"Every year, railroads save consumers billions of dollars while reducing energy consumption and pollution, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, cutting highway gridlock, and reducing the high costs to taxpayers of highway construction and maintenance," reads a 2021 report published by the Association of American Railroads.

Nathan Anderson, Senior Director of Public Affairs at the Union Pacific Railroad, says the expansion of rail capacity by private rail companies strengthens the nation's transportation infrastructure. For example, over the last five years, Union Pacific alone has poured more than $308 million into capital projects across Utah. That doesn't include the hundreds of millions more in salaries and in-state purchases, Anderson says.

The Association of American Railroads estimates that each American freight rail job supports nine jobs elsewhere in the US economy, Anderson explains. "When you consider there are between 1,700 and 2,000 freight rail employees in the state, railroads are having a major impact on our state's economy."

Clearing The Air

Understandably, air quality remains a significant concern for Utahns worried about the state's rapid growth and the...