Front Range passenger rail proposal receives money for viability studies
Front Range passenger rail proposal chugs…
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NEWS
TRANSPORTATION
News
Front Range passenger rail proposal chugs forward with money to assess viability
Officials hope to keep momentum going with several studies while new taxing
district is set up
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By JON MURRAY | jmurray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx | The Denver PostPUBLISHED: October 22,
2021 at 6:27 a.m. | UPDATED: October 22, 2021 at 12:19 p.m.
Colorado transportation leaders on Thursday cobbled together the last of nearly
$4 million needed for studies of a Front Range passenger railway that aim to
assess its overarching viability.
In about two years, the resulting armload of studies on several topics could
give officials at a soon-to-be-established taxing district plenty of fuel for
debate, along with solidifying the basis to ask voters to kick in serious money.
Early estimates have put the cost for a starter system — likely to be operated
by Amtrak in a partnership — at $1.7 billion to $2.8 billion, with as many as
six trains a day running mostly on shared freight tracks connecting cities
including Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins. That money could
come from a mix of federal, state and local sources, including potential new
district sales taxes.
During the upcoming Corridor Development Study, a mix of consultants and staff
from the Colorado Department of Transportation will home in on financial and
operational details, more closely evaluate ridership and funding, put together
a preliminary service development plan, and analyze costs and benefits.
They also are to evaluate project phasing options and seek stakeholder input,
with the goal of crafting plans that are viable not only conceptually but
politically. The latter isn’t a sure bet in a region that stretches more than
200 miles and hasn’t expressed universal support, with the most vocal
opposition coming from El Paso County.
The Colorado Transportation Commission on Thursday morning approved the use of
$1.6 million from its reserves for the $3.9 million study effort.
RELATED: Colorado’s Front Range rail is still just an idea, but a Midwestern
train shows what it could be
The Southwest Chief & Front Range Passenger Rail Commission already has kicked
in the same amount, and the final portion comes from a $685,000 grant awarded
by the Federal Railroad Administration about a year ago.
That grant was sought to study existing freight traffic on the corridor and the
potential to insert passenger trains into the mix. But the rail commission and
CDOT officials pushed to broaden the scope, including by adding several studies
that are required by state law to be completed before the new Front Range
Passenger Rail District can go to voters with a firm plan.
In June, Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 328, which created the district in
all or parts of 13 counties near I-25 between the Wyoming and New Mexico state
lines, including all of metro Denver. Polis and regional planning groups are to
appoint the district’s board by May and it will begin meeting.
In the meantime, state transportation officials hope to keep the momentum
going. The new studies, likely to get underway in coming months, won’t be the
final ones — farther down the line would be a federal environmental review of
the project.
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Earlier this year, a study of possible routes identified three that had some
promise. They vary the most through Denver and points north, but the
most-favored corridor would overlap with the Regional Transportation District’s
unfunded B-Line extension to Boulder and Longmont. RTD and CDOT recently agreed
to coordinate their planning.
“That is the first question that we will be asking: What is the desired route?”
David Singer, CDOT’s passenger rail program manager, told the Transportation
Commission during a briefing this week.
The route alternatives study put the initial railway cost at a fraction of a
more ambitious, gold-standard buildout. That $10.7 billion system would include
new dedicated double tracks for the corridor’s entire length, accommodating two
dozen roundtrips each weekday that would serve a projected 6,900 riders by 2045.