Trains and Coloradans who want to escape traffic jams are likely winners in this year’s legislative session as bills to provide tens of millions in annual state funding for Front Range intercity rail transit advance — ahead of a looming ballot appeal to voters for a tax hike.
The momentum is driving a debate over train frequency and speed among passenger rail proponents who are planning the routes with a hub at Denver’s Union Station and stops in Berthoud, Boulder, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Longmont, Loveland, Pueblo and Trinidad.
While Gov. Jared Polis has prioritized starting service within three years, unexpectedly strong public support exists for “going big” with a more expensive system using separate tracks for passenger trains, according to initial polling done by the Front Range Passenger Rail District. Follow-up polling in the coming weeks will test the public appetite for rail transit and whether voters would prefer a system costing $13 billion instead of state leaders’ proposed $2 billion to $6 billion “starter service” using existing tracks shared with freight trains.
“We can definitely go bigger. I don’t want to have a ‘starter service’ or a bare-bones beginning service. At the same time, we also want to right-size our project,” said Andy Karsian, manager of the passenger rail district, a taxing district that lawmakers launched in 2021.
“The risks are in losing the momentum. People are interested in this right now. We have state-supported dollars coming through the legislature. There are federal dollars available. All of this leads toward action,” Karsian said. “If we wait, then we possibly lose that momentum over the next couple of years.”
It’s been 53 years since passenger rail trains rolled between cities along Colorado’s Front Range. Historically, commercial freight hauling has dominated passenger rail transit in the United States. But Amtrak’s rail ridership has increased from 15 million riders a year in the 1970s to a peak of about 31 million in 2014 and 28 million last year, federal transportation data shows.
“Congestion fee on car rentals”
Colorado lawmakers are poised to approve Senate Bill 184, which would raise $50 million to $60 million a year to re-establish Front Range passenger rail service by charging a “congestion fee” of $3 a day on car rentals.
Senate President Steve Fenberg and House Speaker Julie McCluskie have guided the push for state funding.
American Rental Car Association lobbyist Gregory Scott objected at a recent House Finance Committee hearing, questioning how the fee would benefit people who rent cars, threatening a possible lawsuit. Colorado’s senior transportation advisor John Putnam, who returned in September after a stint as chief legal counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation, testified that 43 states have imposed similar fees. McCluskie testified that Colorado’s rental fees remain relatively low.
A separate legislative deal to shield the oil and gas industry from voter-driven ballot measures would give the state an additional $138 million each year from fees imposed on fossil fuels production, with 80% allocated for transit including rail service linking the state’s growing cities.
Voters will face sales tax proposal
In addition, FRPRD board members plan to decide this month whether to introduce a ballot measure in November, or wait until 2026, asking voters to approve a sales tax hike — likely by 0.23% (23 cents on a $100 purchase). Their initial poll showed 61% would be willing to pay a 0.5% tax hike (50 cents on a $100 purchase) to ensure a better system running 12 to 24 trains per day between cities.
A Regional Transportation District account holds around $190 million more, from a .4% tax metro area voters approved in 2004 to fund “FasTracks” train service between Denver and Boulder. That money also may be available for a coordinated push for intercity Front Range rail. RTD’s manager Debra Johnson sits on the FRPRD board. The RTD’s own elected board could prioritize other transit projects around metro Denver.
Colorado lawmakers’ anticipated approval of annual state funding aligns with a strategy strongly supported by Polis to leverage a share of the $66 billion in federal funds approved for spending on rail projects. These infrastructure funds have created what lawmakers cast as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Colorado because, without hundreds of millions from the federal government, launching rail transit appears potentially too costly.
“It’s within reach”
Polis devoted roughly one-tenth of his Jan. 11 State of the State speech to his vision for re-establishing passenger train transit. “We have the planes, and we have the automobiles, we just need the trains,” he said. ““Yes it’s big, and yes it’s bold, and I’m here to tell you it’s within reach.”
A detailed service plan, developed using $500,000 in federal seed funds, is due from the passenger rail district — based on an initial state proposal to use existing tracks, sharing rail time with freight trains.
However, public transit advocates are prioritizing frequency and speed as the key factors in allowing more residents to ride trains as an alternative to driving. Greater Denver Transit members were leaning toward a system costing more than $6 billion and less than $15 billion and watching for the results of the follow-up polling to test public sentiments, GDT co-founder James Flattum said.
“We support a vision of Front Range Passenger Rail that is fast, frequent, reliable, and accessible. That means building infrastructure. If we ask for too little, a .1% or .2% sales tax, then we get trains without the dedicated tracks needed to support reliable service that we can build on for the future. We need closer to .5% to get that.”
Colorado travelers can ride Amtrak trains from Grand Junction to Denver. The trip takes eight hours, twice as long as driving, due in part to sharing tracks with freight trains.
The Front Range passenger rail service that ended in 1971 carried passengers from Pueblo to Denver in about four hours, about twice as long as driving, said Erin Schmitz, director of collections at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.
“People are always trying to find a way to alleviate traffic, especially on the I-25 corridor,” Schmitz said, pointing to past projects to widen clogged metro Denver highways where traffic in recent years increased “back to where it was.”
Rail transit as seen in Britain and France, including high-speed options, seems superior, she said. “The ability to get on a train and go from city to city, even if it takes the same amount of time as driving in a car, is so much better. You can sit in an observation car and see the scenery.”
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