(The following article by Kevin Flynn was published by the Rocky Mountain News on August 27.)
DENVER — FasTracks, the proposed $4.2 billion mass transit system, could also help pave the way for Front Range commuter trains.
Cal Marsella, RTD general manager, told Denver City Council members Tuesday that buying railroad rights-of-way for transit extensions to Lakewood, Arvada, Boulder, Longmont, Thornton and Denver International Airport would give freight railroads some of the money they need to relocate their main tracks east of the metro area.
That would eliminate interstate freight trains from urban areas along the Front Range. Some local freight service would remain, but the tracks then could be used to set up passenger service between Fort Collins and Pueblo.
Civic officials up and down the Front Range have talked about the possibility of intercity train service to relieve congestion on the growing Interstate 25 corridor.
“Without the money we would bring to the table to buy the right-of-way, they (railroads) would not have the resources available” to shift their mainline tracks, Marsella told the council’s Transit-oriented Development and Blueprint Denver committees.
RTD plans to ask voters in November 2004 for an increase of four-tenths of a cent in the regional transit sales tax, which is currently at six-tenths of a cent. That would raise the RTD tax to a full penny per $1 of taxable purchases.
It would fund FasTracks, a 10-year construction program to extend service similar to the light rail line between downtown Denver and Littleton, and the T-REX line now under construction.
It would include electric-powered light rail in four new corridors, as well as diesel-powered commuter rail to the airport and Boulder-Longmont. The plan also includes more bus service.
RTD reduced the program from $5.1 billion this month because the soft economy no longer will produce the sales-tax revenue needed to support the full program.
Marsella noted that relocating freight trains, particularly the 120-car coal trains from Wyoming to Texas that often tie up traffic at grade crossings in the metro area, is a priority for the railroads, too.
John Bromley, spokesman for Union Pacific, said the railroads “have talked extensively” with Colorado officials about such a move.
“I think if the financing can be arranged, it would be beneficial for all concerned,” Bromley said. “It would open a great corridor for commuter rail.”