{"id":65310,"date":"2020-01-06T11:45:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T18:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/front-range-rail-service-appears-derailed-on-arrival-at-capitol\/"},"modified":"2020-01-06T18:45:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T18:45:50","slug":"front-range-rail-service-appears-derailed-on-arrival-at-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/front-range-rail-service-appears-derailed-on-arrival-at-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Front Range rail service appears derailed on arrival at Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"House
House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder, on stage. Colorado lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis attended a post-session forum hosted by The Colorado Sun and CBS 4 at the University of Denver on May 13.<\/span>Eric Lubbers\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 2020 legislative session hasn\u2019t yet begun, but a goal of Gov. Jared Polis already appears to be derailed.<\/p>\n

House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder, told reporters on Friday that she is \u201cabsolutely not supportive\u201d of legislation to create a Front Range passenger train system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Proponents were eyeing the 2020 legislative session to offer a bill drawing a special taxation district where voters would be asked to fund the estimated $5 billion project. The idea, which has been explored and discussed by the state for years, is for passenger rail service to span from Trinidad north to the Wyoming state line.<\/p>\n

That span is where most of Colorado\u2019s population lives, and Polis and others see train service as a way to potentially decrease congestion building on Interstate 25.<\/p>\n

But without Becker\u2019s support \u2014 she is the top Democrat in the House \u2014 it\u2019s highly unlikely any bill could be passed in 2020.<\/p>\n

Becker cited unfulfilled promises by the Regional Transportation District to create a rail system linking Boulder and Longmont to Denver, despite the fact that people in those communities have been taxed since 2005 to pay for it. She also said there are existing needs in the state\u2019s transportation system that require funding right now, like Interstate 70, and that \u201cthere\u2019s a whole lot of work that needs to happen before folks explore\u201d passenger train service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think folks need to spend the time to understand the issue, the problems we are trying to address what the costs are \u2014 what the technology is,\u201d Becker said. \u201cWhat you plan for today, given how things are evolving technologically, could be completely obsolete within 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker pointed to autonomous vehicles as one example of rapidly changing transportation technology and electric scooters as another. \u201cWho thought scooters were going to be a thing three years ago?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Polis, a fellow Democrat, touted the idea of a Front Range passenger rail system<\/a> as part of his 2018 campaign. Last year, he doubled down on his support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s past time to better plan for growth, reduce traffic and move Colorado\u2019s transportation system into the 21st century,\u201d Polis\u2019 spokesman Conor Cahill said in a written statement in October. \u201cNow is the time to create a real plan and feasibility study to prepare a proposal for a vote in 2020 or 2021 or 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cahill said the governor thinks Front Range rail could help the state deal with \u201cfuture growth, our economy and benefit the people of our state with inexpensive, sustainable, reliable travel choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, is another big proponent of Front Range passenger rail service. He also said it could be part of the state\u2019s transportation future.<\/p>\n

But he acknowledges Becker\u2019s concerns, and both leaders say they have spoken to each other about the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand part of that apprehension,\u201d Garcia said, adding, \u201cI still think there has to be a willingness to say \u2018not all of our solutions will be on Interstate 70 and I-25.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sal Pace, a former state lawmaker and Pueblo County commissioner who sits on a state panel charged with exploring the implementation of Front Range passenger rail service, on Friday said his coalition is not ready to run major legislation this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, in actuality, the residents of Boulder will see rail service quicker when Front Range passenger rail is ultimately implemented,\u201d he told The Colorado Sun. \u201cThat\u2019s partly why 85% of residents want Front Range Passenger Rail. Sixty-one percent say they\u2019re willing to pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pace cited an October poll, paid for by the Southwest Chief & Front Range Passenger Rail Commission he sits on, that showed 85% of voters living in 13 Front Range counties support passenger rail as a form of transportation and 61% said they\u2019d be willing to pay for it. He added that supporters of Front Range rail service will keep moving forward with their ideas and plans.<\/p>\n

The Southwest Chief & Front Range Passenger Rail Commission was funded by the legislature in 2018 with $2.5 million to explore the implementation of passenger train service. Becker is termed limited and this is slated to be her last legislative session.<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, his current job working for a company that makes metal building kits is in Aurora. His office\u2019s parking garage? The same one where Leonardelli was murdered. Johnson has become friends with Leonardelli\u2019s grandson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always talk about how crazy that is,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWell, God works in crazy ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker says transportation dollars should be spent elsewhere<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,394,13,28,2399,259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-railway","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65310"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}