Front Range / High Speed Rail (Denver, Colorado Springs: bankruptcy, live, restaurant)

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

Yikes... okay I'll be having nightmares about that tonight.

Relax, I'm a benevolent sort, beloved by one and all....

[KarlDolder]

Great comments everyone. Please go to the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority Feasability Study Page RMRA Feasibility Study :: Background and post your comments where they will be heard and appreciated.

Thanks

[Josseppie]

My concern is if they moved the freight traffic to east of the cities would that also mean we would lose the jobs that go with it. For example Pueblo has the states second largest train yard, what would that mean for it? Also, the rail line is why Pueblo is getting heavy industries to move here, like the Vestas wind turbine plant, so they would still need to use the tracks.

Its not a bad idea but some key questions need to be answered before I would support the project.

[Jerry Bckr]

We should live long enough to see the day. There are just too many other things that are more urgent and have a higher priority for funding.

[CS-Urbanist]

High Speed Rail along the front range is a no-brainer. The area has been dying for such a thing, even though all we ever do is add more lanes to the highway system. This does not help as a long term solution... Hopefully the new administration will get this moved to the top of their agenda nationally. We need to move away from the auto-dependent life style and get some diversity with our mobility.

[coolandcalm]

WHAT A GREAT IDEA! For those of us who commute locally by bike - or bike-and-bus - there are NO regional transportation connections that I have discovered between the cities in Northern Colorado (i.e. Greeley, Windsor, etc), nor are there any public transportation connections to the south - to include Denver.

To get to Castle Rock recently, I had to take an Airport Shuttle to DIA and transfer to the Colorado Springs Airport Shuttle that stops in Castle Rock. EXPENSIVE - and time consuming.

Since Highway 25 between Fort Collins and Cheyenne is frequently closed in the winter months, I would include Cheyenne in a high-speed Front Range Rail Service, with a transfer into Boulder... and eventually to the mountains.

This will take a lot of traffic off of our most dangerous highways and will enhance inevitable future growth in our state. I will be happy to pay a reasonable tax for the implementation and maintenance of such a system.

[2bindenver]

High-speed rail for Colo.? - Colorado has been awarded $1.4 million in stimulus money to study high-speed inter-city rail as it might relate to FasTracks, Obama administration officials announced yesterday. The money will be used to create a “sophisticated” plan for connecting rail transit systems in Colorado. Colorado was awarded a $1 million grant to conduct a connectivity study. The Colorado Department of Transportation will match the grant to conduct a $2 million study that will examine how high-speed rail systems outside the Denver metro area might mesh with the Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks system. A second grant of $400,000 was awarded to Colorado to develop a state rail plan. CDOT will match the grant for an $800,000 study that is necessary to qualify for national designation of a high speed rail corridor. The designation would allow for future federal funding.
Denver Daily - High-speed rail for Colo.?

[Mike from back east]

Good news.

See also this thread in COLO SGPS forum.

[freewest]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

High-speed rail for Colo.? - Colorado has been awarded $1.4 million in stimulus money to study high-speed inter-city rail as it might relate to FasTracks, Obama administration officials announced yesterday. The money will be used to create a “sophisticated” plan for connecting rail transit systems in Colorado. Colorado was awarded a $1 million grant to conduct a connectivity study. The Colorado Department of Transportation will match the grant to conduct a $2 million study that will examine how high-speed rail systems outside the Denver metro area might mesh with the Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks system. A second grant of $400,000 was awarded to Colorado to develop a state rail plan. CDOT will match the grant for an $800,000 study that is necessary to qualify for national designation of a high speed rail corridor. The designation would allow for future federal funding.

Incredible. $5 million dollars for "studies" and not a single rail laid. This is why these sort of infrastructure projects never get done and why folks oppose them and the taxes necessary to pay for them. I'd love to see more light rail, but the cynic in me is screaming, "The Next Big Dig".

How about something completely different? How about the government builds or upgrades existing rail infrastructure and controls traffic, but turns the trains over to private enterprise. Charge them to use the rails. I'd ride "Virgin Rails". I'll bet a lot of folks would. And the food would probably be better .

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by freewest

How about something completely different? How about the government builds or upgrades existing rail infrastructure and controls traffic, but turns the trains over to private enterprise. Charge them to use the rails.

You mean, like Amtrak? Good idea, except the gov't has to PAY them to use the rails...