CO: Plan to finally connect Denver and Boulder by train brings cheers

The planned rail service linking Denver and Boulder that state officials unveiled to residents at a community meeting Wednesday night won’t bring the high-speed, high-frequency trains of their dreams.

But the Front Range Passenger Rail District‘s $331 million “starter service” trains would roll by January 2029 with three daily roundtrips, at speeds up to 79 mph, also stopping at Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins.

And the 150 residents who attended the meeting in the East Boulder Community Center mostly applauded. The Front Range Passenger Rail District presentation was the latest in a series in which state officials are rallying support for a tax increase to eventually fund an expanded Colorado Connector rail service with 10 daily roundtrips linking cities from Fort Collins to Pueblo.

“Boulder is ready for rail. We have been for 20 years,” said Kristofer Johnson, the city’s comprehensive planning manager, referring to the voter approval of a tax hike in 2004 to fund a FasTracks train linking Denver and Boulder, which the Regional Transportation District has failed to deliver.

That’s been a sore spot in northwest metro Denver. RTD collected sales tax revenues that residents paid over the past two decades, setting aside about $190 million in an agency savings account. Johnson pointed out that Boulder developed a “transit village,” including apartments and shops near an existing RTD bus station, in anticipation of trains to Denver.

Boulder County Commissioner Claire Levy, who also serves on the rail district board, addressed questions from residents about what happened to the sales taxes they paid for two decades.

“The actual costs of FasTracks just far exceed the revenue that was raised. You cannot change that,” Levy said.

“We’re hoping to tap a substantial amount of that money that RTD has put away,” and RTD is expected to pay a share of the annual operating costs, around $25 million, she said. “For more than that, we just have to be realistic about the funding that is available.”

The starter service trains would run on existing RTD B-Line tracks to Westminster, then shift to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway freight tracks. RTD directors and several state boards must first approve funding.

At Wednesday’s meeting, residents wanted to know the train timetables. Where could riders park their vehicles at stations? What’s the potential for an expanded system eventually to bring all-electric fast trains at higher frequencies?

“I was underwhelmed,” said Indira Pranabudi, who moved to Boulder from Boston, where she relied only on public transit. “I came in here quite hopeful. Then I heard ‘three daily round-trips.’ That’s not enough.”

Afterwards, she sat with fellow Boulder resident Andrew Robinson, who embraced the plans. “It’s definitely a start.”

The turnout on a weeknight, following crowds of up to 300 at meetings in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver and Longmont, shows that “people really want this service,” Front Range Passenger Rail District director Sal Pace said.

He and attorney John Putnam, chairman of the rail district’s board and former general counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation, also acknowledged residents’ desires for higher-frequency, faster trains in the future.

“I want that, too,” Putnam said. “Ultimately, we want to be there. If we want that, how do we get there?”

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