Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CIUDADJUAREZ989
2008-10-04 00:11:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Ciudad Juarez
Cable title:  

SECRETARY TELLEZ CALLS FOR FAST ACTION ON BORDER CROSSING

Tags:  BEXP ELTN PGOV MX 
pdf how-to read a cable
R 040011Z OCT 08
FM AMCONSUL CIUDAD JUAREZ
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 5657
INFO AMEMBASSY MEXICO 
AMCONSUL CIUDAD JUAREZ
UNCLAS CIUDAD JUAREZ 000989 


DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USDOT FOR SECRETARY PETERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: BEXP ELTN PGOV MX
SUBJECT: SECRETARY TELLEZ CALLS FOR FAST ACTION ON BORDER CROSSING
PERMIT

REF: CIUDAD JUAREZ 641

UNCLAS CIUDAD JUAREZ 000989


DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USDOT FOR SECRETARY PETERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: BEXP ELTN PGOV MX
SUBJECT: SECRETARY TELLEZ CALLS FOR FAST ACTION ON BORDER CROSSING
PERMIT

REF: CIUDAD JUAREZ 641


1. Summary: During a September 30 meeting organized by Governor
Bill Richardson to discuss a proposed international railroad
crossing at Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Mexican Secretary of
Communications and Transportation Luis Tellez Kuenzler said he
hoped a "conditional" presidential permit for the crossing would
be issued by the U.S. Government before the end of the current
administration. Tellez said the "project has to be approved and
under construction next year; otherwise it is not viable."
Tellez said the USG should issue a permit by January as a sign
of good faith toward the Mexican government, and that he would
take up the issue during the October 6 visit to Mexico City of
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters. Tellez committed
Mexican federal government financial support for engineering,
environmental and economic feasibility studies required as part
of the permit process. The proposed port of entry and an
associated rail bypass of Ciudad Juarez have the strong support
of the mayors of Juarez and El Paso, and the governors of
Chihuahua and New Mexico, and are components of President
Calderon's national infrastructure plan. Support for the bypass
and border crossing proposals by U.S. and Mexican railways,
however, is lukewarm at best. End summary.


2. On September 30, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico
hosted a meeting in Santa Teresa to discuss a timetable for the
proposed Geronimo/Santa Teresa rail bypass and international
border crossing. Among those in attendance were Luis Tellez
Kuenzler, Mexico's Secretary of Communications and
Transportation; Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas;
Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz; El Paso Mayor John Cook;
Greg Bloom, representing U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM); and
representatives from Ferrocarril Mexicano (Ferromex),Burlington
Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific.

PLAN OF ACTION


3. The roundtable discussion produced a four-point action plan
for moving the project forward. These are: to obtain financial
support for the project from federal, state and local
governments on both sides, as well as the three major rail
lines; to form a working group to spearhead the project; to
pursue a presidential permit as soon as possible; and to jointly
fund the environmental, engineering and economic feasibility

studies that form part of the presidential permit process.
Secretary Tellez committed the Mexican federal government to
help fund these studies. Governor Richardson thought that
federal funds from a border infrastructure program championed by
Senators Bingaman and Domenici could be applied to the studies,
and he extracted promises from BNSF and Union Pacific to help
pay for the studies, as well.


4. Governor Richardson, Secretary Tellez, Governor Baeza and
other speakers stressed the importance of obtaining the
necessary presidential permit as soon as possible. Secretary
Tellez specifically asked if a conditional presidential permit
could be obtained which would allow construction to begin while
the "full" permit is being processed. Joseph de la Rossa of the
New Mexico Department of Transportation responded that he had
reviewed the information regarding presidential permits, and he
thought that obtaining a conditional presidential permit was
possible. (Note: in subsequent conversations with Consulate
officers, WHA/MEX pointed out that all presidential permits are
conditional as initially issued, and that any action on a permit
application was dependent on the completion of at least an
environmental assessment of the impact of the proposed border
crossing.)

GOVERNMENTS HOT ON NEW CROSSING; RAILROADS LUKEWARM


5. Secretary Tellez, Governor Baeza and Ciudad Juarez Mayor
Reyes Ferriz all reiterated their respective governments'
support for the rail bypass project and border crossing.
Governor Baeza said that, in a conversation two weeks earlier,
President Calderon had reaffirmed his support for the project as
part of his infrastructure program. Baeza further stated that
Calderon said he did not support an alternate plan to upgrade
existing rail lines through downtown Ciudad Juarez into El Paso.
This alternate plan would require construction of overpasses in
Ciudad Juarez to accommodate additional rail traffic. El Paso
Mayor Cook expressed his support for the new crossing. Cook
said trains on the existing El Paso/Juarez route already disrupt
emergency vehicle access to the city's border neighborhoods,
especially when the trains are stopped for customs formalities,
and he would not support any project that would result in even
more rail traffic on the existing line.


6. Governor Richardson pushed hard for the railroad companies
to commit funding for the rail bypass and international
crossing. BNSF Vice President for Network Development Pete
Rickershauser would not promise company support for a bypass and
crossing until an economic feasibility study had been completed,
but pledged to help pay for the study. Rickershauser said that
in the nearer term, BNSF wanted to find a way to move more
freight on the existing lines through Ciudad Juarez. He said
the existing El Paso/Juarez corridor was BNSF's "most important
international crossing." Union Pacific Senior Vice President of
Corporate Relations Bob Turner said Union Pacific had already
invested USD 300 million in the Santa Teresa region with
construction of a new refueling facility in Strauss, New Mexico,
and that further investment would depend on the results of the
feasibility study. Turner said Union Pacific's current
north/south traffic in the region is not a major source of
revenue, and that the company made its money with its east/west
routes. Ferromex Chief Operating Officer Lorenzo Reyes Retana
presented his company's plan to invest USD 70 million in the
Ciudad Juarez region, but did not indicate if the funding was
specifically for the rail bypass or for upgrades to the existing
lines through Ciudad Juarez. (Note: Ferromex is partially owned
by Union Pacific, but BNSF is its largest customer in the
region.)


7. Comment: Governor Richardson's personal involvement and that
of Secretary Tellez improves the chances that the rail bypass
and border crossing projects will move forward. Still, the
meeting's participants had widely different estimates about
timing and requirements for obtaining a presidential permit, and
absent from the table were USG agencies that might have provided
clarity, such as the General Services Administration and the
Environmental Protection Agency. Jaime Campos, Executive
Director of the New Mexico Border Authority, told a Consulate
officer that the government of New Mexico thought that inviting
those agencies would have been "premature." The result was a
set of muddled expectations, to which USDOT Secretary Peters may
have to respond during her visit to Mexico City on October 6.

MCGRATH