Colorado transportation officials plan to ask voters in 13 Front Range counties to approve a ballot measure this November to fund passenger rail service linking cities between Fort Collins and Trinidad, with 10 round-trips a day.
Front Range Passenger Rail District General Manager Sal Pace said the ballot measure is conditional on the Regional Transportation District providing funds to help pay for a “starter service” along the northern Front Range, including a train linking Denver and Boulder, that would start by 2029, before the full service begins. A budget of $885 million has been set for the starter service. RTD’s portion of that has not been determined.
A crucial track-sharing deal with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owns the tracks, is still not finalized, but Gov. Jared Polis told those gathered for a Colorado Rail Passenger Association (ColoRail) forum this week that it should be done “very soon.” The various agencies pushing for Front Range rail have enlisted an accounting firm to determine how much they’ll seek.
“We don’t want Colorado to be like California, where you have 16-lane highways, and at rush hour you cannot get anywhere,” Polis said. “It’s like a rush half day. ….. We want to take the steps we can to help people get where they want to go.”
Over the past year, RTD’s 15 elected board members have faced pressure behind the scenes and have been discussing whether to help fund the starter service, which would provide three round-trips a day between Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and other northern Front Range cities. State lawmakers have set up potential supplementary funding from a car rental fee and oil and gas companies.
But the restoration of intercity passenger rail in Colorado “relies on Debra Johnson’s shoulders (RTD’s chief executive and general manager), and her board’s shoulders, to make sure” funds are approved as soon as possible for the starter service, Pace said at the forum.
RTD board members must commit funding before November, Pace said, because Colorado has a history of promising passenger rail and not delivering, creating what district polls have found to be significant voter mistrust. For more than 20 years, RTD officials have failed to complete their FasTracks project, which includes a train linking Denver with Boulder, even though metro Denver voters who approved that project in 2004 have been providing funding through sales taxes.
“We’re not going to refer something to the ballot if RTD board members push back. We need them to move forward,” Pace said in an interview. “If they push back, it will kill Front Range Passenger Rail for Colorado Springs, for Littleton, for Fort Collins, for everybody,” he said.
For RTD, “the opportunity is prime,” Johnson said on a panel at the forum. She’s part of the three-member state team negotiating with BNSF for track access. Dispatchers in RTD’s Denver Union Station initially would run the intercity trains, Johnson said.
But she has emphasized that RTD’s decision on whether to fund the starter service rests with her agency’s elected board members.
At the forum, RTD board member Brett Paglieri, who represents a west metro district including Lakewood, acknowledged pressure after hearing Pace’s remarks but said he is “very much in favor of contributing,” based on what he hears from his constituents. “We want those trains to Boulder.”
RTD board chairman Patrick O’Keefe said he, too, favors funding the starter-service, which is being designed under a joint service” agreement between the FRPRD, RTD, and the Colorado Department of Transportation. RTD’s board likely will take a vote this spring, O’Keefe said.
“We don’t have enough money to fund FasTracks. But we still have an obligation to voters who gave us tax money,” O’Keefe said. State leadership to restore intercity passenger rail “has changed the dynamics” for RTD, he said.
However, O’Keefe said he would need to know the amount RTD, which faces financial difficulties, will be asked to contribute before he will commit to a yes vote. “What are the capital costs? Who is the backstop if the project exceeds its budget? What is the cost for operations and maintenance?” he asked. “If we are the backstop for everything, that’s going to be a deal-killer for me.”
Similarly, RTD board member Chris Nicholson said he supports Front Range Passenger Rail and is “going to vote for it at the ballot box.” But he’s wrestling with a fiduciary duty to RTD taxpayers, he said.
“So I cannot make that promise yet,” he said. “It’s like buying a really gorgeous gown. You look fabulous in it, and then you see the price tag, and you ask yourself how much you are going to use it. And like any good salesman, the governor and his team would prefer we ignore our pocketbook and just say yes to the dress.”
State lawmakers established the Front Range Passenger Rail District in 2021, granting the authority to impose taxes in the 13 Front Range counties along I-25. Since then, district staffers and board members have been developing plans, estimating that 250,000 to 500,000 riders a year would use the “starter service” linking Denver and Fort Collins with two or three round-trips per day. A 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. Polis said state transportation officials and lawmakers this year will try to support communities setting up train stations.
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