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 
 
¶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