Study finds I-25, I-70 rail service routes feasible

The chairman of a group of governments and transit agencies studying the potential for high-speed passenger train service along Interstates 25 and 70 says the idea appears feasible.

“There is certainly a market here but how much can you spend, how much can you charge and what are the best alignments? That still has to be determined, but we will hopefully soon get to a hard-and-fast place,´ said Harry Dale, Clear Creek County commissioner and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority.

Dale said a draft report of a year-long study by the RMRA indicates that two routes – from Fort Collins south to Pueblo and from Denver International Airport west to Eagle County Airport near Vail – appear to satisfy technical, economic and financial criteria set by the Federal Railroad Administration.

The FRA must sign off on any high-speed rail corridor designations and is the conduit for federal funding – a must if service in either corridor is to be built.

Cost to build the I-25 portion of the system is estimated at $6 billion; $16 billion for the mountainous I-70 route.

The RMRA found that extending the I-25 corridor north from Fort Collins to Cheyenne was not feasible. “We don’t find feasibility north of Fort Collins because the ridership isn’t as strong and the capital costs are quite expensive,” Dale said.

He added the most likely train technology for both corridors would be electric trains capable of maximum speeds of 220 mph, although such speeds would not likely be reached between close-set stations.

The study also found a reluctance by existing freight railroad companies to share their tracks, making building a new or “greenfield” rail line, more likely.

Still digesting

But many details still remain to be worked out, Dale noted. Precise station sites have not yet been identified, nor have specific alignments.

“We’re still digesting a lot of information to see how it’s all going to play out in the final report,” he said.

The next meeting of the RMRA Steering Committee is set for Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. in the Jefferson County Courthouse in Golden.

Draft studies by RMRA indicate it would take up to 13 years to build the two-corridor system. The first phase would connect downtown Denver with DIA to the east and Colorado Springs to the south and have a price tag of about $3 billion. A second phase would add a western connection to Frisco-Silverthorne-Dillon and cost an additional $9 billion.

A Fort Collins connection would be added in a third phase of construction, along with a southern connection to Pueblo. That would cost an additional $3.5 billion, the report said. Additional phases would add more stops along I-70.

David Averill, a planner with the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization based in Fort Collins, said the Fort Collins-to-Denver portion would likely be built in the immediate vicinity of the interstate.

“A lot of it would be literally in the median of I-25,” he said.

The report estimates a ridership of 50 percent capacity in the system’s first year and 75 percent in its second year, requiring operating support in the first two years. In the third year of operations the system starts to produce operating surpluses, according to study figures.

Funding is still question

Funding for high-speed rail construction is a multibillion-dollar question, but with more than 45 governments and transit agencies supporting it through RMRA and the Obama administration endorsing the expansion of passenger rail, it appears to have its best chance in decades.

Additional support comes from groups like the Colorado Rail Passenger Association, dedicated to increasing passenger service. Ira Schreiber, ColoRail president, said the United States is behind the times when it comes to rail service.

“It’s just the logical extension of what’s there now and what could be in the future,” he said. “We are probably two generations behind the rest of the world – including China – and we need to get behind (passenger rail).”

Schreiber said he had “no preference” as to which of the proposed rail corridors is built first. “We would like to see them both built in an expedient manner,’ he said. “I would suspect that the $6 billion corridor would be built first because it’s less money and less physical challenges.”

ColoRail filed a federal lawsuit in May to stop a proposed redevelopment plan for Denver’s Union Station that the organization claims would not provide sufficient expansion capacity for future transportation services, including possible high-speed rail service. “There would be no space there under the current plan,” he said.

But Andy Mountain, a consultant to the RMRA, said the study does not focus on using Union Station. “What we’re modeling is a downtown Denver station but we’re not getting into the weeds yet on where that might be,” he said.

Next steps

The $1.5 million RMRA study, funded by the Colorado Department of Transportation and member jurisdictions, including Larimer and Weld counties and Timnath in Northern Colorado, will conclude with a final report in October.

Meanwhile, RMRA chairman Dale is one of 17 people from government, transit agencies and railroads appointed to CDOT’s Transit and Rail Interim Committee formed this year under Senate Bill 94, which created a new Division of Transit and Rail.

“The creation of the Division of Transit and Rail will allow Colorado to be more focused and strategic in its planning of transit systems,´ said Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Arapahoe County, one of the bill’s sponsors. “Bringing together such a wide array of interests to serve on this committee is the first step in helping set up the structure that will move transit in Colorado forward.”

Also serving on the new committee is Marlys Sittner, general manager of Fort Collins’ Transfort and Dial-A-Ride programs.

North Front Range MPO’s Averill said he’s hopeful that the new transit committee will pick up on high-speed rail where RMRA leaves off. “We’re hoping they can take the ball and run with it,” he said.

Dale said he’s not so sure that will happen but he is also hopeful. “Our mission at RMRA was to complete a high-speed rail study,” he said. “The new committee will have many goals and objectives to meet. High-speed rail is only one small piece of that.”

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