The flurry of funding bills for passenger rail passed during the recently-completed 2024 Colorado legislative session — dubbed the “year of transit” — will most likely be felt first in an unlikely part of the state, according to a state senator who sponsored several of those bills.
In a recent phone interview with Colorado Newsline, Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts of Frisco touted the near-term possibility of passenger trains returning to Steamboat Springs, his hometown, for the first time since passenger service between Denver and Craig ended in April of 1968.
The last of the rail bills yet to be approved by Gov. Jared Polis, Senate Bill 24-190, is expected to be signed next week in either Craig or Hayden, where railroad giant Union Pacific is looking to replace lost coal-train traffic as coal-fired power plants in both towns shut down in the next few years.
“That bill’s kind of flown under the radar a little bit, but it’s really exciting and could be one of the linchpins for making sure that northwest rail comes to fruition soon, and it is going come to fruition much sooner than Front Range rail, because the infrastructure’s already there,” Roberts said of SB-190, which provides tax credits and creates enterprise zones along the line.
“The goal is to ensure that freight traffic on that rail line continues even after coal transportation drops when the power plants retire in the next few years in Hayden and Craig, because the only way that passenger rail is viable on the mountain rail is if there’s also a healthy freight business,” Roberts added. Front Range Passenger Rail is a long-term plan to connect Colorado’s Front Range cities from Pueblo to Fort Collins, starting with the elusive goal of Denver to Boulder.
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Federal passenger rail operator Amtrak already uses part of Union Pacific’s tracks into the Colorado mountains for both its daily, long-distance California Zephyr between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area and its seasonal Winter Park Express ski train between Denver and the city-owned ski area. The goal is for more frequent and less seasonal passenger trains to continue northwest at Bond and head up to Steamboat, Hayden and Craig.
“This bill provides financial incentives to businesses opening in Craig and Hayden, our coal transitioning communities, when they utilize the rail line to haul freight,” Steamboat Springs Democratic state Rep. Meghan Lukens, a sponsor of the bill, wrote in an email statement. “This increase in rail revenue will allow for the mountain passenger rail to be affordable to all, bringing more tourism and business to the Western Slope.”
Moffat Tunnel lease renewal
Roberts addressed language in SB-190 dealing with the Moffat Tunnel, the vital, state-owned, 6.2-mile railroad tunnel beneath the Continental Divide at Winter Park. Colorado Department of Transportation officials are renegotiating the terms of a 99-year, $12,000-a-year lease for the tunnel with Union Pacific that expires early next year, with the tunnel remaining the only active rail route through the Colorado Rockies.
“The reason why there’s some language about the Moffat Tunnel in (SB-190) is because it’s trying to make the negotiation between CDOT and UP more of a level playing field,” Roberts said when asked if the bill is aimed at offloading the state asset. “It’s not because we want to sell the Moffat Tunnel, necessarily, it’s because the changes will actually allow CDOT to refuse an offer from anybody, UP most likely, to buy the Moffat Tunnel, because the way the statute’s currently written, it would make it very hard for the state to refuse an offer if it were at fair market value.”
Union Pacific currently covers maintenance and insurance costs for the tunnel.
Union Pacific did not respond to a request for comment on the current status of the Moffat Tunnel lease negotiations. Said to be the highest elevation (9,200 feet) and lowest holing (2,800 feet beneath the Continental Divide) railroad tunnel ever, the Moffat Tunnel was finished in 1927. But in recent years it has been the scene of a wastewater spill and the subject of scrutiny in a pitched battle to slow the roll of Utah oil trains through Colorado.
The mayor of Winter Park last summer told Newsline the town and the local business community, including Alterra — the Denver-based ski company that owns and operates Steamboat and runs Winter Park for the city of Denver — is focused on increasingly…
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