Colorado Railcar engineers $9 million contract in Canada

FORT LUPTON – Colorado Railcar is on the fast track to success.

The company recently sold long-time customer Great Canadian Railtour Co. its innovative diesel multiple unit railcar, or DMU, and two coaches for about $9 million.

A DMU is a self-propelled passenger railcar that runs on diesel fuel. This is only the second DMU ever sold. In August 2002, Colorado Railcar finished the prototype and testing of the DMU. The company took the new product on a countrywide tour and sold the first unit to the Florida Department of Transportation last spring to be used in a two-year federal demonstration.

Canadian Railtour’s DMU and coaches are slated for delivery in the spring of 2006 and will begin service in May 2006 on the company’s newly expanded Rocky Mountaineer route. The single-level dome cars will seat 128 guests and run the new route between North Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.

The DMU will seat 56, with the capacity to pull two additional coaches, and will run on a new route from Whistler to Prince George, British Columbia.

“The DMU’s ability to accelerate and decelerate faster than a locomotive will allow us to deliver guests between Whistler and Prince George in comfort and style in just over 10 hours,´ said James Terry, Rocky Mountaineer Railtour’s chief operating officer and executive vice president.

The design of the DMU will be tweaked to turn it from a basic commuter car into a luxury service car.

Traditionally, the single-level, 90-seat DMU railcars sell for $2.9 million; the 188- to 200-seat double-deck DMU railcars cost up to $3.9 million. Colorado Railcar will build Canadian Railtour’s DMU to custom specifications.

“It takes quite a bit of extra work,´ said Tom Rader, president of Colorado Railcar. The redesigned railcar will be 36 inches taller than the standard model to allow for storage and service space.

“To make it that size, we literally have to redesign the shell of the car,” he said.

This sale will also give the DMU a great opportunity for exposure, as British Columbia is hosting the winter Olympics in 2010. Kate Paquin, communications coordinator for Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, said adding the new lines and cars were not part of a strategy to prepare for the events, but it does leave the company in a good position.

“Certainly, the Olympics are part of the puzzle,” she said. “It’s more of good timing than anything.”

Timing for the DMU is good in Colorado as well. With transportation issues rising to top priority, Colorado Railcar is positioned for great things in its home state.

So far, the company’s biggest successes with its new railcar have been far-flung – with sales in Florida and Canada and attention from Washington, D.C., and municipalities around the nation. The company is negotiating with two other public agencies interested in the DMU, Rader said.

“We’re working with over 29 communities across the country,” Rader said.

At home in Fort Lupton, the company is experiencing growth. Rader said employment is up 40 percent compared with last year, and revenues increased 35 percent.

Colorado Railcar’s coming-out occurred in February 2003, when the DMU made a trip from Denver to Fort Collins, with stops in Boulder, Longmont, Westminster, Broomfield and Thornton. This trip could have been the seed that will grow into a regional transportation system.

Since the approval in November of Denver’s FasTracks plan, the Colorado Rail Passenger Association will realign its focus to encourage a regional commuter rail system along the Front Range.

Jon Esty, president of the Colorado Rail Passenger Association, has been in contact with Colorado Railcar for about seven years.

“I’m very impressed with their product,” he said. “I know the folks at RTD are interested in that product.”

Rader said he plans to put in a bid for the upcoming Denver project, but he doesn’t expect the call for bids until 2010.

A 1997 passenger-rail feasibility study used Colorado Railcar’s DMU as a model for a regional transportation system.

The study used the DMU because it is the only passenger locomotive that is certified by the Federal Railroad Administration to use existing rail lines, thus eliminating the cost of installing new ones.

“The advantage of Colorado Railcar is that it can operate on existing freight lines,´ said Dave Ruble, a transportation engineer with LSC Transportation Consultants Inc. in Denver and a major player in completing the study.

Using DMUs, the cost to create a regional passenger rail between Fort Collins and Denver would be $204 million, or $2.8 million per mile. This route would use the Burlington Northern rail line. An estimated 416,000 passengers would use the line annually, the study says.

Ruble said the Burlington Northern line, as compared with other rail lines in the state, is underused.

A line from Denver to Greeley to Fort Collins would cost $157 million, or $1.8 million per mile. A majority of this route would use the Union Pacific rail line. Annually, an estimated 721,000 people would use this route, according to the study.

A Pueblo-to-Colorado Springs route would cost $188 million, or $4.2 million per mile; from Colorado Springs to Denver the cost would be $334 million, or $4.3 million per mile.

All together, a regional rail system would cost no more than $726 million, or an average of $3.8 million per mile. Ruble pointed out that, on average, widening a highway costs $10 million per mile.

A large volunteer group consisting of representatives from various interests, including local and state government officials, railroad executives and even Colorado Railcar, compiled the Colorado Passenger Rail study. The Colorado Transportation Commission funded half of the $275,000 study, while the rest was contributed by between 30 and 40 private and public agencies.

Eight years later, the state and the cities are still far from organizing a regional transportation effort. But when they do, Colorado Railcar plans to be ready.

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