Uinta Basin Rail

The Uinta Basin Rail project was a proposed 100 miles (160 km) railroad in the Uintah Basin region of eastern Utah.

In 2012, the Utah Department of Transportation, working with the regional Six-County Infrastructure Coalition, began studying transportation in the basin, which is a major oil producing region. The study determined that the existing infrastructure was unlikely to be able to move the expected volume of oil. In 2013, HDR Engineering, working with the state, began surveying the area for a rail line. After examining 26 potential routings, the state chose a route east through the Indian Farm Canyon from the Union Pacific line on Soldier Summit to Duchesne and Roosevelt in the basin. The right of way would largely follow existing roadways, including US Route 40 and US Route 191. There would be two terminals for oil trains at the mid and endpoints of the railroad.

In late 2014, after selecting the routing, the state began studying the cost, estimated to be up to $4 billion. With a total of $8.2 million in funding from the state, the Department of Transportation also began work on the Environmental Impact Statement for the railroad, with plans to complete the document by the end of 2016.

Several months after beginning work on the EIS, however, the state decided to end study of the route, citing rising costs identified by closer study. Kevin Van Tassell, a member of the state legislature's transportation committee, said the state would "look at other systems to move product out of the basin other than the railroad at this time."