(The Associated Press circulated the following article on June 12.)
DENVER — State transportation officials and railroad executives are looking for ways to move heavily traveled north-south freight trains away from Front Range cities and use the vacated tracks for commuter rail service.
”If we can move these coal trains out into the plains and reduce congestion, we have a major safety issue resolved,” Colorado Department of Transportation director Tom Norton said on Wednesday.
He made the comments to the Legislature’s Transportation Legislation Review Committee.
If the freight routes move to the Easter Plains, the Regional Transportation District would buy or lease the old freight tracks or build new ones alongside the old tracks for commuter passenger trains, said Cal Marsella, general manager of RTD.
The commuter rail system would run from Fort Collins to Pueblo, linking major cities in between.
RTD plans to ask voters in November 2004 to raise the RTD sales tax to 1 percent from the current 0.6 percent, Marsella said. The increase would help purchase the rail rights of way and fund light-rail lines in the metro area.
RTD officials have been meeting for two years with officials from the Burlington Northern and Union Pacific railroads after railroad officials proposed relocating their 120-car coal and other freight trains around the metro area, Marsella said.
””They were looking for alternative plans that would relocate that traffic east of the metro area. It would allow them to save time on their shipments, and it would be safer,” Marsella said.
Norton told lawmakers the Colorado Transportation Commission has allocated $500,000 to study the benefits of rerouting freight lines. The study could take up to nine months.
Norton said the transportation industry projects that the movement of freight within the United States will double within the next 15 years. Trains are being used more to haul freight long distances while truck routes are getting shorter, he said.