(The following story by Nate A. Miller appeared on the Greeley Tribune website on July 23, 2009.)
GREELEY, Colo. — Passenger rail service may make a comeback in Greeley after a 12-year absence.
Amtrak is in the process of compiling a report to determine the feasibility of bringing back the Pioneer route, which connected Denver and Greeley before being discontinued in 1997.
Amtrak is looking at two possibilities for the route. When it began, the route ran from Salt Lake City to Ogden, Utah, before heading west and ending in Seattle. The route as it ended ran from Denver north to Wyoming before heading to Seattle. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the report will look at both possible routes.
Greeley Chamber of Commerce President Sarah MacQuiddy said passenger rail service would be a boon for Greeley and the rest of northern Colorado. She said tourism is an important and growing part of the northern Colorado economy.
“On the heels of the Stampede, where we had thousands and thousands of visitors coming into our community, with the Blues Jam, we are truly becoming a destination spot for events and festivals and conferences,” she said. “It would just make sense.”
Greeley City Councilwoman Maria Secrest said the return of rail service would be great not only for Greeley and northern Colorado in general, but it could help spur development along the U.S. 85 corridor.
“I just know that Amtrak has stopped in other major cities, and they’ve benefited,” she said. “This would be great for U.S. 85.”
Secrest said she hopes the economic development that has occurred in northern Colorado since the 1990s would make the route a good one for Amtrak.
The study will take a look at the condition of the existing infrastructure, what kind of schedule could be achieved, what kind of ridership could be generated and whether that would be financially feasible. The report is due by mid-October to the Transportation Committee in the House and the Commerce committee in the Senate, Magliari said.
Amtrak began studying the feasibility of returning several routes to service as the result of the passage of the Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008.
Ben Marter, spokesman for Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., the state’s lone member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is looking at the background surrounding the issue.
Markey “would want to make sure that any plan made good business sense and provided jobs and expanded economic development opportunities in northern Colorado,” Marter said.
Congress will make a final decision about bringing back the route.
Magliari said Amtrak dropped the Pioneer route as part of an effort to consolidate services.
“In 1997, we made the decision that we needed to make as many trains daily as we could, and there was not the fleet to support daily service on both the California Zephyr, which is the train that passes to the south of you and the Empire Builder, the train that passes to the north of you,” Magliari said. “Equipment was taken and was redirected to those other trains to make them daily because those trains had better economic prospect than the Pioneer did.”
The Greeley chamber occupies the Historic Railroad Depot, which had been part of the Pioneer line. MacQuiddy said there is still demand for passenger rail service in Greeley.
“We see it as an exciting opportunity to get passenger service back into Greeley,” she said. “We have, I don’t necessarily want to say daily, but frequent visitors to the depot wanting to know about passenger travel.”
Magliari said it’s too early to say whether the new Pioneer route, if it came back, would operate daily or less than daily. Both options are being studied.
“Our preference is to operate as many trains as possible daily, because they’re easier for passengers to use,” Magliari said. “There seems to be active discussion in Congress — dating back to the previous Congress and this one, too — about increasing our fleet size.”
MacQuiddy said she thinks with the creation of the Greeley Freight Station Museum, Greeley has developed a train niche on which it could build.
“With the Historic Railroad Depot and the train museum, we are kind of a train-stop destination, so of course you’ve got your train enthusiasts who would absolutely love that,” she said. “I think there is a need.”