The state of Colorado has reached a tentative agreement with BNSF to host the long-promised passenger train from Denver to Northern Colorado, stating the service agreement lowers the cost enough to finally build the rail service, according to Lisa Kaufmann, Gov. Jared Polis’s top adviser and former chief of staff.
“While the vote to have passenger rail service from Denver to Northern Colorado passed in 2004. There’s never been agreement with the host railroad on how to do that service, and there’s never been a path to be able to fund that service. So what we have with this term sheet is an agreement with the host railroad in BNSF, and we have a clear path to fund the service with existing resources,” Kaufmann said.
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.
Kaufmann said the total one-time estimated $333 million cost is for three daily round trips between Denver and Fort Collins, and is about half as expensive as the initial projections. The annual operating fee would be around $30 million. 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.
“We don’t have any passenger trains passing one another, so that means less sidings,” Kaufmann said. “Also, we’re very strategic in the way we designed the stops. So, where there are existing sunk costs where taxpayers have already paid for large parking structures, we placed the platforms within walking distance to those.”
One source of funding tied up in court
Kaufmann said no federal funding is factored into the project. The state’s $3-a-day “congestion impact fee” on rental cars, a fee on oil and gas production and an RTD FasTracks savings account would fund the project.
“So that savings account has about $190 million balance in it. And so you can see, with the FasTrack savings account, RTD could pay for this project in cash and still have money remaining to continue working on the remaining unfinished FasTracks project.”
The congestion fee was challenged in court and is currently in front of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
All the governing entities involved in the project still need to sign off on the service agreement and approve funds to start designing it. Kaufmann said the hope is to get a final sign-off on fully funding the project by the end of the year.
The Denver to Fort Collins section is meant to be the first phase of the larger Front Range Passenger Rail line that will connect Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, and smaller cities in between.
Front Range Passenger Rail is also actively considering a 2026 ballot measure to increase sales taxes to fund the expansion to Pueblo and increase the service frequency. Kaufmann said the hope for the joint northern line project is to break ground next year.
“There’s obviously still quite a lot of work to do in order to get through to the design phase, negotiate a contract with an operator and finalize the access agreement with BNSF and then do the construction to make those track improvements.”
Kaufmann is scheduled to present the costs and service plan to the RTD board on Thursday evening, and the plan is for all the governing boards involved in the project to pass resolutions by the end of April to continue moving it forward and fund the design phase.
The entities that need to sign off: RTD (regional transportation district), governor’s office, the Colorado Transportation Commission (governing body for CDOT), the Clean Transit Enterprise Board (also in CDOT), Colorado Transportation Investment Office, and Front Range Passenger Rail.
Kaufmann said all the boards have been kept in the loop.
“But obviously, you never know until you take a vote. So we will be continuing to engage on this to make sure that everyone’s comfortable with the progress moving forward.”
The Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks rail expansion plan in 2004 was the last time Denver-area voters passed a big transit funding measure. It funded billions of dollars in rail construction around the Denver metro and is still incomplete, which has been a stain on RTD and a frustration for elected officials, including Polis.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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