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Colorado agrees to 25-year Moffat Tunnel lease to access Union Pacific tracks for passenger rail
Briefline
Colorado agrees to 25-year Moffat Tunnel lease to access Union Pacific tracks for passenger rail
By: Lindsey Toomer - December 26, 2024 3:16 pm
The East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel near Tolland is pictured on June 26, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
Colorado officials reached an agreement announced this week allowing Union Pacific Railroad to lease the Moffat Tunnel for another 25 years. ... Union Pacific has paid Colorado $12,000 a year under a 99-year lease of the Moffat Tunnel that expires Jan. 6. Union Pacific also covers maintenance and insurance costs for the 6.2-mile tunnel that cuts through the Continental Divide near Winter Park at 9,239 feet above sea level. It is the highest railroad tunnel in the United States.
The 1926 agreement will be extended for four months as the state and Union Pacific finalize terms of the new agreement, which will start on May 1. {snip} Sky-Hi News reported that Colorado can use Union Pacific’s tracks for up to three round trips per day in addition to existing routes run by federal passenger rail operator Amtrak. The Granby outlet said Union Pacific will allow the state to run passenger rail on its tracks between Denver and Craig in exchange for the lease on the tunnel.
{snip}
Amtrak already uses part of Union Pacific’s tracks in the Colorado mountains for its daily, long-distance California Zephyr between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area and its seasonal Winter Park Express ski train between Denver and the city-owned ski area. The Colorado Legislature passed a bill this year intended to set the state up for passenger trains to continue northwest at Bond and head up to Steamboat, Hayden and Craig.
In recent years the Moffat Tunnel has been the scene of a wastewater spill and the subject of scrutiny in a battle over proposed Utah oil trains traversing Colorado. A lawsuit over the oil trains made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway, which would connect Utah’s largest oil field to the national rail network, was approved by federal regulators in 2021 but has been tied up in litigation ever since. ... John Putnam, a senior adviser for the Colorado Department of Transportation who led negotiations on the Moffat Tunnel, said the agreement allows the state to connect people and freight on the Western Slope and Front Range, which is what the state built the tunnel for 100 years ago.
Lindsey Toomer
Lindsey Toomer covers politics, social justice and other stories for Newsline. She formerly reported on city government at the Denver Gazette and on Colorado mountain town government, education and environment at the Summit Daily News.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Colorado agrees to 25-year Moffat Tunnel lease to access Union Pacific tracks for passenger rail
By: Lindsey Toomer - December 26, 2024 3:16 pm
The East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel near Tolland is pictured on June 26, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
Colorado officials reached an agreement announced this week allowing Union Pacific Railroad to lease the Moffat Tunnel for another 25 years. ... Union Pacific has paid Colorado $12,000 a year under a 99-year lease of the Moffat Tunnel that expires Jan. 6. Union Pacific also covers maintenance and insurance costs for the 6.2-mile tunnel that cuts through the Continental Divide near Winter Park at 9,239 feet above sea level. It is the highest railroad tunnel in the United States.
The 1926 agreement will be extended for four months as the state and Union Pacific finalize terms of the new agreement, which will start on May 1. {snip} Sky-Hi News reported that Colorado can use Union Pacific’s tracks for up to three round trips per day in addition to existing routes run by federal passenger rail operator Amtrak. The Granby outlet said Union Pacific will allow the state to run passenger rail on its tracks between Denver and Craig in exchange for the lease on the tunnel.
{snip}
Amtrak already uses part of Union Pacific’s tracks in the Colorado mountains for its daily, long-distance California Zephyr between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area and its seasonal Winter Park Express ski train between Denver and the city-owned ski area. The Colorado Legislature passed a bill this year intended to set the state up for passenger trains to continue northwest at Bond and head up to Steamboat, Hayden and Craig.
In recent years the Moffat Tunnel has been the scene of a wastewater spill and the subject of scrutiny in a battle over proposed Utah oil trains traversing Colorado. A lawsuit over the oil trains made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway, which would connect Utah’s largest oil field to the national rail network, was approved by federal regulators in 2021 but has been tied up in litigation ever since. ... John Putnam, a senior adviser for the Colorado Department of Transportation who led negotiations on the Moffat Tunnel, said the agreement allows the state to connect people and freight on the Western Slope and Front Range, which is what the state built the tunnel for 100 years ago.
Lindsey Toomer
Lindsey Toomer covers politics, social justice and other stories for Newsline. She formerly reported on city government at the Denver Gazette and on Colorado mountain town government, education and environment at the Summit Daily News.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.