Colorado transit liars are back with a fresh PowerPoint and the same old hand in your wallet.
CPR reports the state has reached a “tentative” agreement with BNSF that could finally allow passenger rail from Denver to Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, and Fort Collins. The pitch is that three daily round trips would cost about $333 million up front and $30 million a year to operate, funded with existing money like RTD’s FasTracks savings, the state’s rental-car congestion fee, and oil-and-gas revenue. State officials are already floating a separate 2026 sales-tax measure to expand Front Range Passenger Rail farther south and increase service.
That should sound familiar, because Colorado voters have heard some version of this song since 2004. That was when FasTracks passed. That was when taxpayers were sold the Denver-to-Boulder train dream the first time. And CPR states the plan is still incomplete, still a stain on RTD, and still a standing frustration for elected officials. Translation: you already bought the product, the company never delivered it, and now the same people are back asking whether you would like to upgrade to the deluxe package.
This is the part where the transit priesthood gets offended and starts muttering about “vision,” “regional mobility,” and “existing resources.” Spare us. If this corridor had the ridership logic and population density to support itself the way they pretend, we would not be entering year twenty-two of excuses, sketches, board presentations, and ceremonial breakthroughs. We would have a damn train. Instead we have what Colorado government does best: a museum-quality collection of studies, slogans, and incomplete infrastructure.
And note the wording doing all the heavy lifting here. Tentative agreement. Could build. Hope to get final sign-off by the end of the year. Hope to break ground next year. Still need RTD, the governor’s office, multiple CDOT bodies, the Colorado Transportation Investment Office, and Front Range Passenger Rail to sign off. Still need to fund design. Still need operator contracts. Still need final BNSF access. Still need construction. In other words, the only thing actually running on time is the bullshit.
The sharpest insult is the tax angle lurking behind it. The state says this northern segment can use existing funds, while Front Range Passenger Rail is openly considering a 2026 ballot measure to raise sales taxes for the bigger buildout. There it is. Do not tax yourself twice for something the transit class could not deliver once. That is not optimism. That is getting conned by the same salesman in a new tie.
Maybe one day Colorado will build this thing. Fine. Build it first. Run it. Prove it works. Then come asking for applause. Until then, the Boulder train remains what it has been for two decades: a taxpayer-funded ghost story told by people who never seem to miss a meeting, a grant, or a chance to lie about being almost there.
Source: CPR News
Just Stop It
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