Front Range Passenger Rail reaches agreement with BNSF to allow service from Denver to Fort Collins
Front Range Passenger Rail service between Denver and Fort Collins could begin by early 2029 under an agreement reached with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owns the freight lines that would be used by the passenger rail.
State officials said Thursday that it will cost $333 million to launch a “starter service” with an annual operating cost estimated between $25 million and $35 million.
Under the proposed agreement, the passenger rail would operate three round-trip trains per day, seven days a week, from Denver to Fort Collins. They would have a top speed of 79 mph.
To begin the service, the Regional Transportation District would make a one-time payment of $156 million and the remainder would be covered by the Colorado Department of Transportation’s investment arm CTIO, said Lisa Kaufmann, senior strategic adviser to Gov. Jared Polis, at a town hall meeting.
The agreement is expected to be finalized by this summer, Kaufmann said.
Sal Pace, FRPR general manager, said at the town hall that the starter service needs to be built out first before bringing a proposition to voters to expand the service across the state.
Officials hope to eventually increase the starter service from three trips per day to 10, Pace said.
Construction on the passenger rail is expected to begin early next year and last until January 2029.
The $333 million price tag is down from previous estimates of $650 million, Kaufmann said, because the agreement calls for a single train running three trips per day as opposed to multiple trains. That removed the need for “siding” tracks that would allow trains to pass one another.
The passenger rail service, which is expected to eventually run from Fort Collins to Pueblo, was recently given an official name of the “Colorado Connector,” or “CoCo” for short.
Officials have said previously that voters in the 13 counties the train would run through may be asked in November to vote on a ballot measure to increase sales taxes to fund the full expansion of the train, estimated to cost several billion dollars.