(The following article by John Rebchook was posted on the Rocky Mountain News website on February 3.)
DENVER — Union Pacific is taking a first step to move the majority of coal trains that rumble through Denver each day to the Eastern Plains.
The Omaha-based railroad is in negotiations with Colorado Springs-based Schuck Corp. to move about 20 of the 30 coal and freight trains to a planned 750-acre facility at Schuck’s 6,700-acre TransPort development next to the Front Range Airport. Front Range is east of Denver International Airport.
It’s too early to give a timetable or a cost estimate, said Steve Schuck and a spokesman for Union Pacific.
“But let’s face it, eventually it will have to be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” Schuck said. “We’re talking about a gigantic commitment that will rival the kind of investment the railroads made (more than) 100 years ago when they started building in the Central Platte Valley.”
Schuck noted the railroads brought industry to Denver, “but now there are inherent conflicts between pedestrians and trains. Clearly, the downtown area should be freed from as many trains as possible and the only way to do that is to move them out.”
Schuck said his namesake company would like to redevelop the three railroad yards Union Pacific owns near Denver that could be vacated with a move to TransPort.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper applauded the efforts.
“Certainly, it has many benefits,” Hickenlooper said. “It’s real estate that has got tracks and large, noisy industrial uses in an area where most of the housing is upscale. It’s in the heart of where you would want to have the creative class job generation.”
He said there would be “significant safety” benefits by the move, and Union Pacific would benefit by not slowing its trains to a crawl through Denver, he said.
Hickenlooper said he’d like to see the railroad do the same thing in other cities, such as Fort Collins and Colorado Springs.
Michael F. Kelly, a regional vice president of Union Pacific, sent a letter of intent to Schuck on the proposal.
In the letter, Kelly said the railroad will “develop with the Schuck Corp. an integrated multimodal transportation facility. The efforts . . . will help to accelerate the movement from the Platte River Valley properties to TransPort.”
Dick Hartman, spokesman for Union Pacific, said there is no timetable.
“There are a number of things going on that will influence how fast, when and where and how we go forward,” Hartman said. “This is certainly a very first, initial effort. We’ve been having discussions with the Shucks for a number of months.”
He noted that the railroad already is planning to spend $27 million to “straighten out” the rail yard known as Utah Junction near Interstate 25 and East 58th Avenue. That plan will allow trains to go directly to the east, Kelly said.
Hartman said if voters approve a $4.7 billion FasTracks plan in November, which would add passenger rail lines throughout the metro area, that could accelerate the project. He said the railroad plans to move ahead even if FasTracks fails.
Cal Marsella said FasTracks and the Schuck plan complement each other.
If Union Pacific vacates most of the tracks, they could be used by commuter trains from Cheyenne, Pueblo and possibly all the way to New Mexico, he said.
Department of Transportation Executive Director Tom Norton has launched a “benefits and cost” study to determine the feasibility of relocating many trains to the Eastern Plains from congested urban areas.
“From what I know of it, I do not have any argument with it,” Norton said. “Ultimately, it is what we have to do.”
Tom Clark, president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., called the proposal a “wonderful step forward. . . . It will help the northeast sector reassume its dominance of distribution in the West.”
Clark said some federal funding almost certainly will be required to help finance the move.
George Thorn, chairman of the Downtown Denver Partnership, said the notion of moving the trains from downtown has been discussed for years, and he’s happy to see some positive movement.
“Frankly, I think this is great,” Thorn said.