DENVER — The effort to develop rail service along a corridor between Fort Collins and Pueblo, Colo., entered a new phase on Friday with the first meeting of the Front Range Passenger Rail District board, created by legislation in 2021 to plan, develop, finance, and operate rail service in that corridor.
Colorado Newsline reports state and federal money will allow for preliminary work needed before the board asks voters in the district to approve the major funding to develop and build the rail service. That district covers all or part of 13 counties which would be served by the proposed operation [see “Colorado governor signs bill …,” Trains News Wire, July 1, 2021]. Friday’s meeting indicated a ballot measure is unlikely to come before 2024.
The project must also obtain federal environmental approval under the National Environmental Policy Act, which can take five or more years, although board chairman Jim Souby said the goal is to achieve the NEPA requirements sooner.
“This system has to materialize in a way the public can understand and support in short order,” Souby said. “This is a very elaborate and detailed process, but we want to keep the pressure on to make sure we get this done as effectively, but also as rapidly as possible.”
5 years. Good grief.
I would have to believe the Front Range corridor will be top on the list to expand Amtrak’s corridor/service in general. I also think it would be an opportunity to think bigger and or in my mind smarter, In other words I don’t see how say adding a daily train to Duluth MN or another short spoke daily train from Chicago to another IL town is advantageous for Amtrak. Get away from these expansion ideas
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However, think bigger on north south routes that will tie in better with current service such as connect Front Range to Cheyenne to the north and extend to existing Amtrak service. The other thought, go bigger and extend proposed New Orleans to Baton Rouge to Shreveport, LA/Texas Eagle Service or time to go from Tulsa, OK to KC…
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So in other words, north south expansion for new service and increase frequency on east west routes.