LONGMONT, Colo. — Using the idle equipment from Amtrak’s Winter Park Express, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, state legislators, and local officials rode an inspection train from Denver to Longmont today (Thursday, March 7). The 44-mile, 90-minute trip used the BNSF Railway route via Boulder that is proposed for passenger service that would continue north to Loveland and Fort Collins, Colo.
That route is part of the Front Rail Passenger Rail route selected for the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program, as well as new concept to join efforts by Front Range and the Regional Transportation District’s long-stalled FasTracks service to develop the Denver-Longmont route [see “New proposal seeks to combine efforts …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 25, 2024]
“I’m excited to take the first demo train for Front Range passenger rail, which we are building out to improve our quality of life and reduce traffic,” Polis said in a press release. “Historic federal funding for passenger rail is giving our state the opportunity of a lifetime to provide Coloradans with easy, convenient, and safe travel by train.”
KDVR-TV reports that the officials’ goal was to show the promise of the northwest rail route.
“We certainly will have a few kinks to work out before we are fully up and running,” state Senate President Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) told the station, “but this is a very exciting moment. … While today marks the first train to Longmont, we are here because we want to ensure that it absolutely, most certainly, will not be the last.”
Amtrak has idle equipment?
In this case, only during the week. That equipment is used on the weekends in winter for the Winter Park Express from Denver to Winter Park. During the week it’s just sitting waiting for the next weekend, which made it perfect for this kind of trip. I suspect during the rest of the year the cars are split up and sent out for use on other trains.
Gov. Polis and friends have discovered that there’s a rail line in the I-25 Corridor. The next step will be to demonstrate that the Front Range train will attract patronage. A few weeks ago Amtrak’s California Zephyr derailed after leaving Denver. Sixty-nine passengers. (Or was it 69 total, including crew. I don’t recall.) (Admittedly much lower than typical on this train, but does make a point.) Compare that to counts on Denver freeways or patronage at DEN Denver International Airport.
So let’s say the proposed Front Range train runs, two or three or maybe four R/T per day. ” ….. to improve our quality of life and reduce traffic…” Polis says in a press release. I’m fine with the first half of the quote. The math simply isn’t there for the second half of the quote. Take every single Amtrak patron nationwide, Montreal to San Diego, Miami to Vancouver. That would be NEC plus LD plus Midwest and California corridors. Subtract that patronage from the number of cars from Denver freeways and other highways. You’d have to look very very hard to quantify a difference.
Think I’m exaggerating? Run the numbers yourself. I have.