Haven’t seen any discussion of it on here so far but I have been seeing some tidbits of info that the Colorado D.O.T. along with both BNSF and UP are doing a preliminary feasibility study of possibly moving a majority of the two lines’ traffic to a new, relocated line somewhere further east. From what I gathered the hope/idea is to somehow make it possible for Amtrak service along the front range (something that’s been LONG overdue). But it would seem at first glance anyway that simply adding a third track on the route would be a much more feasible option, wouldn’t it?
There are multiple goals in this concept. The primary goal is to free up track capacity for a large-scale commuter train network (not Amtrak long-distance). The others are to reduce emissions in an area with serious air pollution issues; reduce grade-crossing delays while freight trains pass (which also reduces air emissions); reduce noise; reduce fuel consumption for freight trains (bypass Palmer Lake Divide); and provide for growth in freight train capacity. Theoretically you could do accomplish some of these goals by adding one to two more tracks to the existing corridor and grade-separating a few hundred crossings, but the cost would be very high for the right-of-way acquisitions and utility relocations, to say nothing of all the sound fence, public impact mitigation, etc., that would be required. Building new track out on the prairie and revamping the corridor for commuter trains will probably be more expensive still.
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money,” said Senator Everett Dirksen. Well, actually he never said it, but it’s a good quote anyway.
RWM
(1) This is the 4th or 5th “study” since 1978. We have pressure here from urban planners to push this along because the idiot planners hung their hat on a bad concept since day one and now are looking pretty stupid in the near future reality.
(2) CDOT needs to change their name back to CDOH (not qualified at all in a railroad sense)…Nebraska is still NDOR and they are better qualified.
(3) Two years ago we had the controversy over “super-slab” east front range highway bypass which made this project even tougher to sell.
(4) CDOT is broke and their is little or no chance the feds will pony-up the cash for this thing. The railroads are not going to build it and finance it themselves.
(5) You will never eliminate freight traffic from the front range (Hint: those moron planners do not want passenger rail on those lines either…and Colorado Springs/El Paso County (who are unabashedly anti-railroad ) are not going to atone for their sins that go back to the mid-1970’s and the creation of the single track Colorado Springs "bottleneck from Kelker/Crews to Palmer Lake)
(6) The Joint-Line is the only North-South line in the state and is a major funnel from the Pacific NW & Powder River Basin to Texas and the Southeast.
(7) Part of the line might follow the original allignment of the Kansas Pacific/Arkansas Valley Railway that was the first abandonment in Colorado in 1877 after less than 4 years of operation. (at least 56 0f the 80 miles abandoned)
(8) Colorado Springs already welched on the second track through town following the coal boom of the late 1970’s - why would they allow the third track?[V] The political entities here (brainless) have been on an ego trip for years that says they can tell the railroads (and all their traffic) to just go away. Reality is a foreign concept to these folks, especially when it comes to co-existing with freight railroads. Besides the numbskull planners in (1) that
I’ve kind of been wondering about the FasTracks project. Is RTD even remotely close to building anything on the project yet, MC? It seems like all I’ve read about since it passed is the millions of dollars being poured into studies for each of the lines.
It is going, albeit slowly…The fun and games now is moving utilities. Talking almost daily to folks invoved on three of the lines on the design side dealing with cans of worms larger than anticipated…You saw recently the news story on the Telco contractor diverting a canal right into a guy’s basement [unintentionally] over near Lakewood? (That was utility relocation for the federal center line)
[quote user=“mudchicken”]
(1) This is the 4th or 5th “study” since 1978. We have pressure here from urban planners to push this along because the idiot planners hung their hat on a bad concept since day one and now are looking pretty stupid in the near future reality.
(2) CDOT needs to change their name back to CDOH (not qualified at all in a railroad sense)…Nebraska is still NDOR and they are better qualified.
(3) Two years ago we had the controversy over “super-slab” east front range highway bypass which made this project even tougher to sell.
(4) CDOT is broke and their is little or no chance the feds will pony-up the cash for this thing. The railroads are not going to build it and finance it themselves.
(5) You will never eliminate freight traffic from the front range (Hint: those moron planners do not want passenger rail on those lines either…and Colorado Springs/El Paso County (who are unabashedly anti-railroad ) are not going to atone for their sins that go back to the mid-1970’s and the creation of the single track Colorado Springs "bottleneck from Kelker/Crews to Palmer Lake)
(6) The Joint-Line is the only North-South line in the state and is a major funnel from the Pacific NW & Powder River Basin to Texas and the Southeast.
(7) Part of the line might follow the original allignment of the Kansas Pacific/Arkansas Valley Railway that was the first abandonment in Colorado in 1877 after less than 4 years of operation. (at least 56 0f the 80 miles abandoned)
(8) Colorado Springs already welched on the second track through town following the coal boom of the late 1970’s - why would they allow the third track?[V] The political entities here (brainless) have been on an ego trip for years that says they can tell the railroads (and all their traffic) to just go away. Reality is a foreign concept to these folks, especially when it comes to co-existing with freight railroads. Besides the numb