Uinta Basin Rail

The Uinta Basin Rail project is a proposed 100-mile (160 km) rail line to connect the shale oil rich Uinta Basin region of eastern Utah to the national rail network. Oil extracted from the Uinta Basin is mostly shipped by truck to refineries in Salt Lake City that can accommodate this crude, as it has a wax content that requires transport in insulated containers via truck or rail rather than pipeline since the oil will solidify at room temperature. Having a rail line to the area would facilitate transport to more distant refineries that can accommodate high-wax crude, including refineries in Texas and Louisiana that have expressed interest in using Uinta Basin oil.

Numerous proposals have been made, some as far back as 1902, that are still under consideration. The current effort is a public-private partnership between a coalition of 7 counties in Utah, the Rio Grande Pacific Corporation and Drexel Hamilton Infrastructure Partners. The railroad is also backed by the Ute Tribe who hold a 5% stake in the project. If the rail line is built it will be the first major greenfield rail line built in the United States since the Chicago and North Western’s line to the Powder River Basin was built in the early 1980s. The Surface Transportation Board approved construction of the line in December 2021, however, the approval was challenged in court by various environmentalist groups. On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the Board and overturned the lower court block on construction.