DENVER — The state of Colorado has changed its negotiating team addressing the expiring lease for the Moffat Tunnel, with the state’s Department of Transportation taking over from the Department of Local Affairs to lead negotiations with Union Pacific over use of the state-owned bore through the Rocky Mountains.
The website Colorado Newsline reports that the state is seeking more passenger service through the tunnel — both for commuter and tourist purposes — as part of the new deal to replace UP’s 99-year lease for the 6.2-mile tunnel. That agreement, which has UP paying $12,000 a year, expires on Jan. 6, 2025. The tunnel lease negotiations moved into the spotlight earlier this year when opponents of Utah’s Uinta Basin rail project urged the state to use the lease as leverage against the Utah project [see “Moffat Tunnel lease could become part of fight …,” Trains News Wire, July 30, 2023]. The Uinta Basin project has since been thrown into limbo by a court ruling that found the Surface Transportation Board’s environmental impact report was insufficient [see “Federal court strikes down approval …,” News Wire, Aug. 18, 2023].
A spokeswoman for the Department of Local Affairs told Colorado Newsline the state’s Department of Personnel & Administration’s Public-Private Partnership Collaboration Unit was also part the state’s negotiating team, and that John Putman, a former general counsel to the U.S. Department of Transportation and former environmental program director for the state Department of Public Health & Environment, had been appointed by Gov. Jared Polis to lead the negotiations.
An assortment of state and local officials told the news site they were interested in expanded passenger service that could extend Amtrak’s current Winter Park Express ski train to the Steamboat ski area in Steamboat Springs; offer commuter rail service in Routt and Eagle counties; and revive a portion of the dormant Tennessee Pass line to serve commuting ski-resort workers in Summit and Eagle counties.
State DOT spokesman Bob Wilson said agency has identified the Tennessee Pass line as a recommended corridor for future passenger service, although that has been done in a yet-to-be-published report. “The lease of the Moffat Tunnel likely has no impact on the potential for the UP or other partners to reopen the Tennessee Pass Subdivision, but may be a component of the negotiations as we look forward,” Wilson wrote in an email.
$12k per year? How many years does it take to amortize the cost of the tunnel?
I’ve heard from a very reliable source that the UP’s internal estimate for rebuilding the Tennessee Pass line is a nice, round $1,000,000 per mile. CDOT does not have access to that kind of money, even if the legislature wants to do it, so Tennessee Pass is probably off the table. CDOT can barely handle adding long-overdue lanes to I-25 and I-70.
More ski trains would be nice, as would anything that keeps more tired drunks from heading back from the ski areas to Denver on I-70. However, there doesn’t appear to be anyone at the state government level who understands the first thing about the economics of passenger rail. A new team of negotiators is not likely to make a difference.
This change is more about the money than the politics. CDOT has way more ability to work the legislative process to bring money to the table for new or expanded services than any “Local Affairs” group could.
UP has a lot of leverage here, so Denver probably needed someone that could bring a better set of poker chips to the negotiations.
The Uinta Basin Railway project has not been thrown into limbo by the nearsighted court ruling for Eagle County. It has only delayed the inevitable. There is more than one way for UP to get the Uintah Basin Oil through Colorado that does not involve Eagle County or any of its subdivisions. It can go North to Ogden, UT and then East via Cheyenne, Wyoming on the Overland route. It can go south from Cheyenne to Denver and then east through the Central Corridor or it can go south through Denver down thru Pueblo and any direction east or west via the UP/BNSF Joint Line.
Colorado is already accepting oil on UP and BNSF trains through Denver and to Denver refineries. Is Colorado suddenly going to close those down and the tax revenue that goes with them? No that would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. There are more uses for oil than fuel for cars and lubrication grease. Many chemicals, clear films and everyday plastic products require oil as a key ingredient in the process of manufacture. Are Coloradans going to quit using those items as well? Of course not.
The Uinta Basin Railway will be built and there is nothing that Eagle County extremists and environmentalist can do about it. Too bad, so sad…
One other thing, UP owns those lines including the one through Moffat Tunnel and the Tennessee Pass. Whether they allow any of these passenger uses will be up to them. Colorado might remember that when they start negotiations, Remember what cutting off your nose to spite your face refers to.
This is smart. Now UP in a new lease cannot demand” improvements ” to have more passenger service. City of Cincinnati should do same.