CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A consulting firm and the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization have narrowed a potential location for a new passenger station to two sites, the Cheyenne City Council was told last week.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that the planning body and Quandel Consultants have trimmed a list of six possible sites to two: the Reed Avenue corridor on the City’s West Edge, and Old Happy Jack Road near the intersection with Missile Drive. Both are adjacent to BNSF Railway trackage. The Reed Avenue option actually has two possible locations; the Old Happy Jack Road choice would involve land already owned by the city. Costs to develop a station at the various sites range are estimated at $24 million to $30 million.
The station options reflect possible extension of Colorado’s Front Range Passenger Rail line from its current planned northern endpoint of Fort Collins, Colo., to Cheyenne, about 45 miles farther north. But Randy Grauberger, a senior rail consultant at Quandel, told the council that the facility could end up being something of a rail hub, if proposed expansions of Amtrak take place. This year’s final Federal Railroad Administration Long Distance Service Study included proposals for three routes that would serve Cheyenne: a Denver-Los Angeles train via southern Wyoming; a Denver-Twin Cities route via South Dakota; and an El Paso-Denver-Billings, Mont., service. [See “Houston-New York service gets highest ranking …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 21, 2025].
Grauberger said Quandel recommended that the city continue taking steps toward developing both sites as part of a group of recommendations. Among the others: submit an application to include the Fort Collins-Cheyenne extension in the FRA’s Corridor Identification and development program, and remain in contact with the Front Range Passenger Rail District about developments.
Both of these locations that have been chosen go along with Robert Ryerson’s proposal for the restoration of the Pioneer. Both locations are right next to the Union Pacific BNSF interchange track this will allow Amtrak to turn all three trains to access the Western Front Range Corridor from this train station trains can either go north towards Laurel Montana where they will tie into a new service that will service Yellowstone national Park and also the Hiawatha, they will tie into the desert wind service which goes to North Ogden and down to Las Vegas, and they could tie into the Pioneer which heads to Portland Oregon. Now it is time for the city to narrow these down to one and get that Station built that way if an accident happens on the Moffitt subdivision like what happened a couple weeks ago when that BNSF Train derailed they can route Zephyr into Wyoming and service will not be disrupted Colorado passengers will use a bus but Zephyr can go around and stops will be serviced and they can get to Salt Lake on time and that is what we need. Now let’s get this built restore the Pioneer to Wyoming and the desert wind to Wyoming. This time do it right place the station in the capital do not place it at Speer do not place it at Borrie that last attempt failed and resulted in both the Desert Wind and The Pioneer being canceled this time we are going to do it right and Cheyenne will have Amtrak service restored.
I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but Amtrak tends not to reroute trains these days when a derailment blocks the line. They just cancel the train. And both of these locations are directly on BNSF, not UP, so they would be of minimal benefit to a restored Pioneer or Desert Wind.
All of these proposals must be great enrichment to bureaucrats and consultants. While it may be nice to contemplate additional train service, these proposals smack of dreamland. The old C&S (BNSF) is track warrant territory so far as I know and the Denver-Twin Cities route is patently absurd. The El Paso run would, I suppose, provide an additional train on the nearly vacant route via Glorieta and Raton passes, or connect with the existing Albq.-Trinidad schedule (when on-time). But why not go to Shelby, MT instead of Billings and connect with the Empire Builder? Whether UP is anxious to host a few passenger schedules on its underutilized mainline to serve the huge population hubs of Laramie, Rawlins and Rock Springs is another question. The only viable part of these proposals from a patronage standpoint is the Front Range project and Cheyenne is a stretch although a nice option in bad weather vs. I25. Drawing lines on a map is one thing, justifying the cost another. IMHO
Well stated, Richard.
This is an article about a station location for fantasy trains that will never run.