LONGMONT, Colo. — Using the idle equipment from Amtrak’s Winter Park Express, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, state legislators, and local officials rode an inspection train from Denver to Longmont today (Thursday, March 7). The 44-mile, 90-minute trip used the BNSF Railway route via Boulder that is proposed for passenger service that would continue north to Loveland and Fort Collins, Colo.
That route is part of the Front Rail Passenger Rail route selected for the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program, as well as new concept to join efforts by Front Range and the Regional Transportation District’s long-stalled FasTracks service to develop the Denver-Longmont route [see “New proposal seeks to combine efforts …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 25, 2024]
“I’m excited to take the first demo train for Front Range passenger rail, which we are building out to improve our quality of life and reduce traffic,” Polis said in a press release. “Historic federal funding for passenger rail is giving our state the opportunity of a lifetime to provide Coloradans with easy, convenient, and safe travel by train.”
KDVR-TV reports that the officials’ goal was to show the promise of the northwest rail route.
“We certainly will have a few kinks to work out before we are fully up and running,” state Senate President Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) told the station, “but this is a very exciting moment. … While today marks the first train to Longmont, we are here because we want to ensure that it absolutely, most certainly, will not be the last.”
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