Diesel-powered trains will thunder west from Denver through the Continental Divide to Granby starting late next year, marking the first stage in a multi-year effort to launch inter-city passenger rail service in Colorado.
The state-funded Mountain Rail trains will run year-round to Granby and soon after to Steamboat Springs and Craig. Colorado leaders say their rollout — including trains linking metro Denver with Boulder, Longmont, and Fort Collins by the end of this decade — will give residents and visitors non-driving options for moving around amid worsening traffic congestion.
These won’t be the high-speed bullet trains that dart across Europe and Asia.
Colorado is committing to a fundamentally different approach: re-purposing 2,545 miles of existing track on century-old routes that crisscross the state and sharing them with freight trains. The speeds of Colorado’s new passenger trains won’t exceed 70 miles per hour. The first trains will be hard-pressed to hit 50 mph as they climb at elevations up to 9,239 feet above sea level.
But this approach has forward momentum at a time when the U.S. government isn’t prepared to invest the billions of dollars required to keep pace with Asia and Europe.
No federal funds will be necessary, and Colorado voters won’t be tapped to approve debt or higher taxes to get the service started, Gov. Jared Polis said.
“This is a project that actually delivers, rather than talking about projects that will never happen and cost tens of billions of dollars,” Polis said, pointing to California’s long-planned high-speed rail project to carry riders from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours by 2020. Costs ballooned to $106 billion. No trains have run. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in February ordered a review to determine whether $4 billion in federal funding should still be available for “the massively over-budget and delayed” California project and President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared the government won’t pay.
Polis has made passenger trains a mission, visiting Japan and Switzerland to learn about modern rail systems.
“We are going to get it done,” he said.
He touted the benefits: escaping vehicle traffic jams and parking hassles, consistent times comparable with driving, reliability in bad weather, and better safety. And, “you can relax,” working on laptops, reading, eating, listening to music, or talking with fellow passengers.
“It will make life better for everyone,” Polis said. “Most people will just value having their time back.”
Big deal done
This month, state officials in the governor’s mansion celebrated the culmination of a three-decade push after finalizing a key track-sharing deal with the Union Pacific Railroad, which owns tracks that run 230 miles into the northwest quadrant of the state — enabling three initial routes (Denver-to-Granby, Oak Creek-to-Craig, Denver-to-Craig).
The next steps for launching Front Range Passenger Rail linking Denver with Fort Collins and six other cities, followed by the planned expansion south from Denver to Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Trinidad, require the completion of a deal with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. BNSF will need track upgrades and new sidings for passenger and freight trains to pass, said BNSF assistant vice president for passenger operations Jim Tylick, a proponent of “converting trucks and people from highways to rail” who sits on the state Front Range Passenger Rail District board as a non-voting member. He characterized negotiations as collaborative.
Colorado’s approach of sharing existing tracks with freight trains won’t preclude faster trains in the future if dedicated tracks are installed. A steel mill in Pueblo and an adjacent rail plant already produce tracks for high-speed trains. On April 9, Polis announced that Swisspod, a rail technology company, will open a manufacturing plant in Colorado Springs and conduct tests at a facility east of Pueblo for high-speed trains, including trains that might use existing tracks — a possibility, Polis said, “if it works.”
“Talk with anybody who has visited Europe and seen their highly developed network. They come back with stars in their eyes,” said Chris Nevitt, Colorado’s Front Range Passenger Rail District board chairman. “There’s no reason we can’t do that here. ….. People are hungry for rail.”
Leveraging the Moffat Tunnel
To enable the train service, Colorado negotiators leveraged a unique asset — the 6.2-mile Moffat Tunnel bored through the granite west of Denver in 1927. The tunnel, which reduced the rail route from Denver to Salt Lake City by 173 miles, proved crucial for interstate commerce and Amtrak. Colorado owns it. Union Pacific’s 99-year lease had come due. Up to 15 coal and other freight trains per day pass through the tunnel.
The deal signed May 1 gives Union Pacific access to the tunnel for freight for 25 years. Union Pacific granted Colorado track access for intercity passenger trains.
“There were some wrestling matches involved and late nights on both sides,” said Union Pacific president Beth Whited, who acknowledged complexities when freight and passenger trains use the same tracks.
“We aren’t always able to accommodate both,” Whited said. However, “this line can take more train traffic than it has today” and “we are committed to continue working with the state.”
Colorado’s approach could become a model for expanding passenger rail service, she said. “But, in general, we want to preserve our ability to run freight.”
‘A superior form of ground transit’
The push to revive passenger rail service began around 1988 in the Wynkoop brewpub, across from Denver’s Union Station, where civic-minded rail enthusiasts, including brewery owner John Hickenlooper, now a U.S. Senator, were discussing rumors. They’d heard Mayor Federico Pena wanted to tear out tracks because passenger rail transportation looked dead.
Participants were questioning the billions of dollars required for repeatedly widening Interstates 25 and 70 to accommodate population growth, said Peter Barkmann, a retired state geologist who was there.
“We thought passenger rail was a superior form of ground transit, more weather-proof than highways and flying. And in a place like Colorado with spectacular scenery, it would just be more enjoyable. You would have more legroom and you would have options for sleeping car service and better food. We thought we needed to promote this as an alternative,” he said.
They formed the Colorado Rail Passenger Association (later dubbed ColoRail) and lobbied to save tracks and resurrect Union Station. Barkmann became the group’s first president.
Their work led to lawmakers establishing a state passenger rail commission and, in 2021, the Front Range Passenger Rail District, which has the authority to impose taxes in 13 counties between the Wyoming and New Mexico state borders.
“The restoration of rail service will provide an alternative to driving on highways that can be clogged, closed, and unenjoyable. It will give more opportunities for mobility in a way that reduces carbon emissions and congestion and sparks development in city cores. This is a serious moment, the tipping point,” ColoRail’s current president, Jack Wheeler, said.
“We understand the fiscal limitations in the United States and the fragility of federal support, which is the single most hindering factor in what can be done with rail. All serious rail advocates want a dedicated right-of-way for the high-speed rail that much of the rest of the world enjoys. But that costs tens of billions of dollars.”
Front Range cities next
Between 250,000 and 500,000 riders a year likely will use the “starter service” linking Denver and Fort Collins with two or three roundtrips per day, according to district projections. After 2029, many more are expected to ride trains running up and down Colorado’s heavily populated Front Range, depending on ticket prices, frequency, capacity, and vehicle traffic.
The start-up budget of $885 million includes $92 million for upgrading eight train stations in Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, Boulder, Louisville, Broomfield, Westminster and Denver.
Funding comes from sources state lawmakers set up in 2024. A “congestion impact fee” on rental cars raises around $60 million a year. Lawmakers also imposed a fee on oil and gas operations, expected to provide another $12 million a year for financing rail transportation.
Metro Denver Regional Transportation District officials are discussing a role for their agency. In 2004, voters approved an RTD plan to run a train linking Denver and Boulder with 10 stops by 2014. RTD hasn’t delivered, yet has amassed around $190 million in tax revenues collected from metro Denver residents for future rail projects. If RTD’s elected directors sign off, these funds, too, would help fund the Front Range intercity rail system that connects with RTD’s light rail trains.
The full system from Fort Collins to Trinidad likely will require voters to approve funding up to $1 billion and federal support. But existing state sources of funding will cover the launch of trains on Mountain Rail and along the northern Front Range, Nevitt of the FRPRD confirmed.
“If the feds were making money available, which the Biden Administration did, it would be malpractice not to try to use federal money to make our dreams come true. But Colorado has a long history of doing things on our own when nobody shows up to help.”
Proponents of a separate Southwest Chief Thru-Car Project met recently to review plans for running mini trains north from the Amtrak line that crosses southern Colorado. These would link La Junta to Pueblo and Colorado Springs. No timetable has been set. Colorado Department of Transportation planners also list other possibilities for re-purposing existing train tracks, including the tracks that run west from Pueblo up the Arkansas River Valley to Salida, then north to Leadville and over Tennessee Pass to Minturn on the I-70 corridor.
“The State of Colorado is committed to helping Coloradans across the state access low-cost trains, and the state is focused on completing the service development plan for Front Range passenger rail and mountain rail from Winter Park to Steamboat Springs,” Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Megan Castle said. “These proposals have widespread support from local communities along the route. Additional routes would need to demonstrate that same local support.”
Federal Railway Administration officials haven’t ruled out funding. An FRA grant last year provided $66.4 million for the construction of track sidings that allow trains to pass each other and crossings on roadways.
Mayors from northern Front Range cities recently went to Washington, D.C., and met with senior federal transportation officials, united in their support for re-launching passenger trains and the state’s self-reliant approach.
The future usefulness for residents and visitors ultimately will depend on speed, frequency, and how rail compares with driving, said RTD board member Karen Benker, who attended the meetings in Washington, D.C.
“It’s all about money,” Benker said.
But trains increasingly will appeal as Colorado’s population grows from 5.8 million to a projected 8.7 million by 2050, she said. “Only a train can go right into cities to where people live. Air can’t go there. And are we going to put 16 lanes on I-25?”
New opportunities
The fact trains are coming next year has set off preparations along routes.
In Granby, local leaders are testing scooters and other “micro-transit” to help passengers arriving at their station make “last mile” connections.
If Grand Lake officials are interested, the free shuttle buses in Winter Park and Fraser might be extended to carry passengers bound for Rocky Mountain National Park, Fraser Mayor Brian Cerkvenik said.
“Improved connectivity helps everyone,” Cerkvenik said. “Giving people more options for travel will bring more visitors to our corner of the state. These train options will allow people with a modified work-from-home job to consider moving their families to Fraser, Winter Park, and Granby, even if they need to be in the office in Denver a day or two a week. Working from the train on the way to Denver, and then skiing during your lunch break on those work-from-home days sounds pretty good.”
Most of all, trains will relieve the burden of driving, said Cody Wilkinson, 27, a Winter Park youth ski racing coach who lives in Fraser and has struggled to combine that work with graduate studies in carbon management at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He and his fiancée envision buying a house near Fraser. He’s looking for jobs in metro Denver.
But driving takes at least two hours. Vehicle traffic jams clogging I-70 and Berthoud Pass, especially in bad weather, limited his ability to take full advantage of CSU activities in Fort Collins and an internship. For his coaching, getting from Fraser to a lift to reach racecourses by 8:30 a.m. on weekend mornings is unpredictable.
“I want to ride the rail as my regular intercity travel. I can work, read, sleep while I travel – instead of exhausting myself in traffic for two to four hours,” Wilkinson said.
He’s planning to be at Fraser Station around 6 a.m. and rely on the train to reach Denver Union Station around 8 a.m. Then he’ll ride Bustang buses, RTD light rail, and the Front Range trains to reach his destinations before returning to Fraser at night, he said.
Convenient transportation “means a lot to me. I want to live in Colorado. The way this state is set up, with 80% of the people along the Front Range, seems to be the perfect geography and landscape for intercity passenger rail. This unlocks so much for our future.”
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