(The following story by Bill Jackson appeared on the Greeley Tribune website on September 15.)
GREELEY, Colo. — Union Pacific Railroad wants to open commuter rail service from Denver to Greeley.
The company said it has a pending agreement with the Regional Transportation District to relocate two of its northeast Denver rail facilities to its proposed new terminal between Fort Lupton and Brighton in southern Weld County.
Presently, Weld is not a member of the RTD.
Under the pending agreement, however, the RTD would have the option to purchase a 55-mile by 50-foot right-of-way that could run from Denver to Greeley on Union Pacific’s 90-mile Greeley subdivision corridor that has served communities in Weld and Adams counties since 1878.
UP intends to relocate a classification yard and intermodal terminal from Denver to its new proposed terminal about halfway between Fort Lupton and Brighton. That move would make way for two FasTracks commuter rail corridors, said Dick Hartman, director of public affairs for the railroad. That commuter rail service could then serve Fort Lupton, Platteville, Gilcrest, La Salle, Evans and Greeley.
The agreement does not specify when commuter rail service would be extended north.
Earlier this year, RTD and Union Pacific signed a $40 million contract allowing the railroad to pursue design and engineering studies for the terminal on 640 acres. That proposal was met by opposition by residents in the area fearing the increased truck traffic, noise and environmental concerns it would bring.
Local officials expressed optimism about the current proposal, but said there are a lot of hurdles that in the path, the first being Weld becoming a part of the RTD.
Greeley Mayor Tom Selders, and Dave Long, chairman of the Board of Weld County Commissioners, said they think that would take two ballot issues — one on whether or not Weld residents would want to join the transportation district and a second on whether or not they would want to pay the taxes that would be necessary to make that move.
“I’m not sure Weld voters would vote that way right now,” Long said, noting there is not the ridership to support such a service, presently.
“But this can jolt everybody, and a lot of people will say something like this could never happen. But I would argue that, because it could happen in the future given the population growth figures for this area we’ve seen,” Long said.
Selders agreed.
“I think this is something we certainly need to look at,” he said.
Longtime Fort Lupton community leader Don Cummins has watched the development of the proposed terminal, along the present UP line between Weld County roads 4 and 8, for sometime.
Cummins said any commuter line “would take five to 10 years after they get the new terminal built,” adding “I’m really optimistic because we’ve got some real traffic problems we have to solve.”
UP’s Hartman said the railroad and RTD have entered into an agreement to fund work that will allow UP to establish the feasibility and cost of its potential relocation. That should be done by late this year and a decision by RTD and UP on building the new facilities would be shortly thereafter.
If the proposal is approved, construction would take place 2008-2009, with the new facility opening in 2010.