Colorado looks to re-establish passenger rail line into the mountains

The Colorado Department of Transportation will begin exploring the possibility of re-establishing passenger rail from Denver to Craig utilizing funds from a federal transportation package, the agency announced Monday.

The $5 million study will provide data and suggest service options for this corridor, CDOT said in a news release.

The 191-mile rail line would operate along the existing Union Pacific route and would pass through the towns of Steamboat Springs and Hayden, among others. Union Pacific lines already serve Winter Park ski trains from January through March and Amtrak’s California Zephyr, but implementation of a line from Denver to Craig would mark the first time since 1968 that the route would include passenger rail.

“We’ve always looked at that corridor as one that would be a potential for passenger rail,” said Timothy Hoover, CDOT communications manager for Front Range passenger rail and innovative mobility. “But it’s only been in the last couple years that the possibility became much stronger.”

The recent reduction in coal train traffic, due to a rise in green energy use as well as cheaper and more widely available natural gas, as well as the 2021 federal bipartisan infrastructure deal have increased the possibility of such a line being realistically implemented, Hoover said.

If implemented, the line would be operated by CDOT, but would be separate from the long-promised Front Range passenger rail line, which would instead be overseen by a special district, Hoover said. But the current plan is for both lines to have an endpoint at Denver’s Union Station, allowing for passengers to transfer between the routes.

“There are a lot of communities that have obviously grown since the ’60s,” said Jonathan Flint, Steamboat Springs’ transit manager. “Having yet another transportation option between Denver and these communities is, I think, something that a lot of people would be interested in.”

Not only would residents of Steamboat Springs be interested in the rail connection with Denver, Flint said, but tourists who fly into the state without access to a car would also utilize the service, especially to avoid driving over perilous mountain passes in the wintertime.