DENVER — The state of Colorado has changed its negotiating team addressing the expiring lease for the Moffat Tunnel, with the state’s Department of Transportation taking over from the Department of Local Affairs to lead negotiations with Union Pacific over use of the state-owned bore through the Rocky Mountains.
The website Colorado Newsline reports that the state is seeking more passenger service through the tunnel — both for commuter and tourist purposes — as part of the new deal to replace UP’s 99-year lease for the 6.2-mile tunnel. That agreement, which has UP paying $12,000 a year, expires on Jan. 6, 2025. The tunnel lease negotiations moved into the spotlight earlier this year when opponents of Utah’s Uinta Basin rail project urged the state to use the lease as leverage against the Utah project [see “Moffat Tunnel lease could become part of fight …,” Trains News Wire, July 30, 2023]. The Uinta Basin project has since been thrown into limbo by a court ruling that found the Surface Transportation Board’s environmental impact report was insufficient [see “Federal court strikes down approval …,” News Wire, Aug. 18, 2023].
A spokeswoman for the Department of Local Affairs told Colorado Newsline the state’s Department of Personnel & Administration’s Public-Private Partnership Collaboration Unit was also part the state’s negotiating team, and that John Putman, a former general counsel to the U.S. Department of Transportation and former environmental program director for the state Department of Public Health & Environment, had been appointed by Gov. Jared Polis to lead the negotiations.
An assortment of state and local officials told the news site they were interested in expanded passenger service that could extend Amtrak’s current Winter Park Express ski train to the Steamboat ski area in Steamboat Springs; offer commuter rail service in Routt and Eagle counties; and revive a portion of the dormant Tennessee Pass line to serve commuting ski-resort workers in Summit and Eagle counties.
State DOT spokesman Bob Wilson said agency has identified the Tennessee Pass line as a recommended corridor for future passenger service, although that has been done in a yet-to-be-published report. “The lease of the Moffat Tunnel likely has no impact on the potential for the UP or other partners to reopen the Tennessee Pass Subdivision, but may be a component of the negotiations as we look forward,” Wilson wrote in an email.
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