Got an opinion on the future of train travel through Colorado’s mountains? Now your voice can be heard.

It’s your opportunity to speak up on the future of trains, mountain travel, and the fate of our cities in Colorado with evolving economies. The Colorado Mountain Rail Project open house events are happening right now!

The Colorado Mountain Rail project was first announced last year after money was earmarked for the transportation department to start looking into the possiblity of getting passenger rail out to Craig, Colorado.   

The meeting times are as follows:

• Sept. 10, 2024
  5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 
  Location: Center of Craig 
  601 Yampa Ave.
  Craig, CO 81625
• Sept. 11, 2024
  5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 
  Location: East Grand Middle School 
  251 W. Diamond Ave.
  Granby, CO 80446 
• Sept. 12, 2024
  5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 
  Location: Oberon Middle School 
  7300 Quail St.
  Arvada, CO 80005

To City Manager of Craig Peter Brixius, this proposed train line can not come soon enough. 

“We’ll take any assistance we can get,” Brixius said, matter of factly. “I mean, frankly, it’s important, (the state) mandated some of these closures and it’s important that they participate in the solution and it takes a it takes a lot of money to get this done, takes a lot of teamwork.” 

Brixius was refrencing the closures in the coal related industry, which has been the backbone of the economy in the town for decades. Now that Colorado is moving away from coal production, Craig is now looking to shift it’s economy towards anything else, but tourism seems to be a logical swtich. 

“We’d like it to happen pretty quick because the mine and the power plants are going to close down here in about 2 to 3 years,” Brixius said. “There’s going to be of course, you get that reclamation process which will keep jobs for a while too, but not forever.”

The project is eyeing a stretch of 191 miles of Union Pacific Railroad that’s already in exsistance that would then become reestablished passenger rail. The last time it was used for that purpose was in 1968. This would create the opprutinity for communities to utilizie that route as a consistant mode of travel, and provide a more attractive oppurtunity for folks to live and work in some of these towns along the path. 

Not only would this afford residents more flexiblity, but it would also create an additional transportation option aside from the Bustang and Pegusus buses to get into the mountains without a vehicle of your own. 

The plan does not have an estimated completion date as it is still in the initial stages. 

Spencer Wilson

Spencer Wilson is CBS News Colorado’s mountain newsroom reporter. Read his latest reports or check out his bio and send him an email.