This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Now that Colorado has reached a tentative agreement on the long awaited passenger rail from Denver to Boulder and on to Northern Colorado, the governing boards of RTD, and other state transportation commissions and the Front Range Passenger Rail District are expected to vote on the plan by the end of April, and decide whether to fund the next design phase.
Even if the initial service plan moves forward, there is still a lot of work ahead, from approving the design plans, and designating specific station buildouts. Then the boards would need to approve the full cost of the line by the end of the year. If all the funding and plans work out, the goal is to have passengers riding the rails in 2029.
The details were discussed in a virtual meeting Thursday morning that included, the state, RTD and the Front Range Passenger Rail District.
Under the plan, passengers would depart from Denver’s Union Station on the RTD B line to Westminster, and then connect to the BNSF line to go on to stops in Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, and Fort Collins.The initial plan is for three daily round-trips between Denver and Ft. Collins seven days a week.
Denver-area voters passed the FasTracks rail expansion plan in 2004 to fund billions of dollars in rail construction in the Denver metro area and it is still incomplete, which has been a stain on the Regional Transportation District and a frustration for elected officials, including Gov. Jared Polis.
“We’d already have front range passenger rail if we didn’t have that significant hurdle,” said Sal Pace, the General Manager of Front Range Passenger Rail District, which is working to build passenger rail from Pueblo to Ft. Collins. He said there was a lack of political support for the larger rail project until the Boulder line was underway.
Pace said Front Range Rail can only be built out when it’s clear to constituents in the northwest Denver metro area that the train from Denver to Boulder can provide service. The project has been in limbo for 21 years because of costs and other logistical challenges.
The Denver to Fort Collins section is meant to be the first phase of the larger Front Range Passenger Rail line that would eventually connect Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, and smaller cities in between.
“We see joint service as both a stand alone service and as building blocks for front range passenger rail,” Pace said.
The Front Range Passenger Rail District is working on a ballot initiative potentially for 2026 to increase sales taxes to fund the expanded service and to bring the line south to Pueblo. Aug. 3 is the last day to file an initiative petition with the Secretary of State for the general election.
Pace attended a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday to discuss the plans, with the CEO of RTD, Debra Johnson, and Lisa Kaufmann, a senior strategic advisor to Polis and his former chief of staff.
Johnson said it’s been clear that RTD did not have the funding to complete the Denver to Boulder route on its own.
“We wanted to ensure it was done with intentionality and purpose,” said Johnson.
Kaufmann has been spreading the discussions. She said the service agreement lowers the cost enough to finally build the rail service, which is estimated to cost $333 million for the infrastructure. It’s about half as expensive as the initial projections. She said the one-time costs are significantly lower because of how the train schedule is designed and the fact that state and regional entities are coordinating rather than running separate services.
