(The following editorial was posted on the Denver Post website on November 19.)
Early Colorado settlers moved heaven and earth to bring the railroads to town. But yesterday’s blessing has evolved into today’s headache.
In 1870, Denver businesses and community leaders pooled resources to lure the Union Pacific Railroad to build a branch line here. Now, the Colorado Department of Transportation has commissioned a $450,000 study to explore building 90 miles of new track and move freight lines farther out on the Eastern Plains.
That’s because what were out-of-the- way grade crossings in the last century have become dangerous bottlenecks as metro sprawl reaches farther into the hinterlands. Unfortunate encounters between automobiles and trains were rare when there were fewer motor vehicles and trains didn’t consist of 100 or more coal-laden hopper cars.
Cities like Arvada, Brighton and Castle Rock now find themselves literally cut in two by heavy rail traffic that backs up traffic at grade crossings or, worse, prevents emergency vehicles from reaching the other side of town. In Denver, grade-level crossings like the one on Santa Fe Drive between West Maple and West Bayaud avenues can keep emergency vehicles locked up in traffic.
Train-car collisions in the metro area have climbed for the past five years, despite some annual fluctuations. In 1998, the six-county area had nine such collisions, but in 2002, the total had climbed to 14. That’s also a statewide trend, according to federal statistics.
But some railroads challenge that. The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, for example, says its grade- crossing collisions have dropped by 47 percent from 5.41 per million train miles in 1995 to 2.89 in 2002.
Some high-profile crashes, like the one in Castle Rock that severely injured 16-year-old Maureen Martin last year, caused a public outcry in favor of moving railroad crossings. That city plans an $8.5 million roadway overpass at the intersection where the girl was injured. And Arvada, regularly inconvenienced by “beer train” traffic to the Coors brewery, is contemplating a $17.8 million underpass.
Moving main-line tracks farther onto the plains would allow long-distance freight trains to bypass built-up metro communities, yet local freight would still have access to Denver and the suburbs, according to CDOT planner Tom Mauser. Reduced local traffic, he noted, also may make fewer grade separations necessary.
There’s no question avoiding slow- moving routes through town will save the railroads time and money.
If government and the private sector give the green light for such an ambitious undertaking, it could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.
That may require creative financing, but the idea seems to make sense and is worth exploring.