DENVER — Colorado legislation limiting train lengths and requiring wayside detectors, among other provisions, has passed the state’s House of Representatives and been introduced in the Senate.
HB24-1030 is sponsored in the House by state Rep. Javier Mabrey (D-Denver) and in the Senate by Sens. Lisa Cutter (D-Lakewood) and Tony Exum (D-Colorado Springs.). As passed by a 43-12 House vote last week, it would cap train lengths at 8,500 feet, and while requiring detectors, but does not specify how frequently they must be placed along rail lines. It includes several amendments from the original version introduced at the start of the legislative session [see “Colorado considering legislation …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 9, 2023]. Notably, it no longer specifically prohibits blocking a grade crossing for more than 10 minutes. Instead, it says only that trains must be operated “in such a manner as to minimize obstruction of emergency vehicles at highway-rail crossings.”
KUSA-TV reports Republican opposition has raised concerns about the regulation’s preemption by federal regulation. According to the station, Mabrey has said the bill was written to try to avoid that issue.
Doesn’t the BNSF go through downtown Ft Collins and the CSU campus.
BNSF freight goes across Nebraska and into Colorado along with the one Amtrak train daily each way. Intermodal mostly skips them on that route.
I think Colorado, Virginia, and other state legislatures are thinking that the current “conservative” SCOTUS will be more concerned with “states rights” than past courts.
I think they’re not looking at the pattern of rulings.
As an added bill to this bill, all future Pony Express riders will be subject to wear seat belts, safety glasses, protective clothing that deters rattlesnake bites, and a water and feeding station for their horses every 5 miles.
I can almost sympathize with the Centinnial State. Well not sympathize, but at least see their point of view. Colorado is situated on both of the coal-hauling rail routes between Wyoming strip mines and Texas power plants. Though coal is declining it still exists. Coal trains pass N-S through the downtowns of the two biggest cities, Denver and Colorado Springs.
Other than coal, which might eventually disappear, Colorado is bypassed by the major transcontinental freight routes running E-W across Wyoming or New Mexico.
Actually Charles, having lived near Denver and understanding the locale, the trains all pass WEST of downtown, not in downtown. Maybe in a section of Ft Collins but not downtown Denver, They are much closer in The Springs but they follow the I 25 corridor so what is the big deal? And Oil and Coal have been plying these routes for over 100 years so if the Colorado legislatures has all this time to waste on legislation that is trumped (no pun intended) by Federal Law and the oversight of the Surface Transportation Board and the Federal Railroad Administration, then they are all about to get a rough awakening. The genie was out of the bottle long before the CO Legislature and Legislators decided it was politically worth it to get involved. Now a ban of polluting SUV’s would be something but of course all the environmentalist in CO can’t do without their gas guzzlers, they just want the people in surrounding states to not have access to their own!
“Mabrey has said federal preemption has come up, but he says they have worked with the Colorado Attorney General’s office and experts who were involved in the Federal Railroad Safety Act to try and avoid that issue.”
The state looks to install sensors it appears.
This will be just another waste of time and money when all is said and done. Even if Colorado passes laws, they will be preempted by Federal Regulations. The railroads are Federally Regulated. State by state laws and regulations aren’t possible when you have all the states with different views of what a problem is.