Dedicated commuter train line in Yampa Valley likely requires additional study, local operations funding to become reality.
Colorado’s top rail official said Monday that the state may forgo applying for federal funding to start mountain rail service if they could speed up implementation of the project, as a 2026 goal set by Gov. Jared Polis to start some level of mountain rail service looms.
When announced, the prospect of federal funding was one of the reasons that passenger rail service to communities in Colorado’s mountains was seen as possible, with Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Shoshana Lew calling it a “rare opportunity” in an October 2023 press release.
But at an open house style meeting in Hayden on Monday, Paul DesRocher, director of the Division of Transit and Rail for CDOT, said the idea of federalizing the project was still in discussion.
“As soon as you take cent one of federal dollars, it changes the dynamic of what is the process to which this train line can be implemented,” DesRocher said. “You have to start following different rules and regulations and sometimes — as you might expect — that can lengthen the amount of time that you can get to project implementation.”
“There is significant political attention to implementing service sooner than later,” DesRocher continued. “Our calculus is could we get to the finish line faster by not federalizing, or can we not get there at all without the federal dollars?”
Monday’s meeting was part of a second round of open house style meetings along the Mountain Rail train route, which would connect Denver and Craig, while passing through communities including Arvada, Winter Park, Granby, Kremmling, Oak Creek, Steamboat Springs and Hayden. A third round of open house meetings is planned for December, with one in Steamboat Springs.
Rail officials are currently drafting a service development plan for mountain rail, which would detail how a potential rail line on the mountain corridor could operate, how it would be funded and how many people may ride it. This plan is expected to include a commuter focused rail line in the Yampa Valley, though that aspect of the larger mountain rail project will likely require additional study and local funding to be implemented. The service development plan is expected sometime in December or January.
DesRocher said current thinking would attempt to establish service between Denver and Granby initially to meet the 2026 goal. This corridor already has passenger rail service including Amtrak’s California Zepher line and the seasonal ski train to Winter Park.
“The governor is really interested in getting service started sooner,” said DesRocher, mentioning Polis, who will end his second term as Governor in January 2027 and is term-limited from running again. “In order for us to do that, we want to capitalize on this corridor where we already have passenger rail service.”
Still, the rail director emphasized uncertainty on Monday, saying he considers the 2026 goal to start operating some level of rail service along the mountain route a “challenge.”
“Everything is sort of a maybe at this point,” DesRocher said. “I am a little careful with the language because I don’t want to give a false impression that this is definitely going to happen. There are steps that need to occur.”
When asked if there was any data detailing what level of rider demand there may be for Mountain Rail routes, DesRocher said that information would be included as part of the service development plan. Steamboat Springs City Council member Michael Buccino, who represents the city as part of the Mountain Rail Coalition, said the reason work has gotten this far is partially due to Polis’ interest in rail.
“[Polis] wants to leave his legacy of bringing passenger rail to all four corners of this state,” Buccino said. “This is the lowest fruit on the tree. That’s how come this is a priority.”
The service development plan will likely discuss the concept of bookending the train service, potentially instituting routes on either end of the line before connecting them through a tricky portion or track between Kremmling and Oak Creek. This section goes through some of the roughest terrain where railroads exist DesRocher said, and may require track improvements to accommodate passenger trains.
DesRocher said that a shorter commuter rail line through the Yampa Valley — likely from Oak Creek to Craig — would be included as one of three routes in the service development plan, though it will likely require additional study about the potential feasibility of such a train. While a commuter line has been talked about by local officials involved in the rail effort since the start, DesRocher said the concept had only recently risen to the surface.
“This is not necessarily an expected outcome of this and my thought is that there is likely to be an additional plan needed in order to further understand how could a commuter service be rolled out,” DesRocher said. “Is there funding for it? How does it look?”
How any of this would be paid for is still up in the air. DesRocher mentioned several bills passed in the legislature this past session that created funding for rail, but nowhere near what rail may eventually cost. The service development plan is expected to paint a clearer picture on costs, both for capital improvements and ongoing operations, though Lew, the CDOT director, characterized it as in the “hundreds of millions” in February.
While a commuter line will be included in the larger service development plan, DesRocher said it may not be the state’s role to operate that line. Still, he said work to create the larger Denver to Craig line would be useful for a local commuter line as well.
For example, the intercity line may pay for stations along the route that could be used by a commuter train. Maps presented Monday showed potential stations along the line, including two in Steamboat, two in Hayden, and one in each Craig and Oak Creek.
Caption: This map shows potential locations for train stations in Routt County. (Dylan Anderson/The Yampa Valley Bugle)
“You can think about how an intercity line, again that longer line, might help to support the implementation of a commuter line,” DesRocher said. “But the actual payment of how that operation happens on a day-to-day basis, that may not be the state’s role.”
DesRocher said he believed the Yampa Valley was ahead on this, as work to ask voters for a Regional Transportation Authority is ongoing with a 2025 ballot question in mind. While it is unlikely rail service would be part of an initial RTA proposal, Routt County Commissioner Sonja Macys said a question could include some mention of rail.
Macys, who represents Routt County on the Mountain Rail Coalition, said she wanted to ensure people thought of a potential RTA and passenger rail as separate issues right now, though they may eventually be intertwined. She said she thinks of an RTA as an all of the above approach to regional transit, not just one strategy.
“We have to try this from every angle that we possibly can,” Macys said.
Top Photo Caption: A map showing three potential Mountain Rail routes, with a short route from Denver to Granby, a commuter route from Oak Creek to Craig, and an intercity route from Denver to Craig. (Dylan Anderson/The Yampa Valley Bugle)