Passengers or petroleum products? That’s one of the key questions being bandied about in a renewed effort to revive part of the long-dormant Tennessee Pass rail line linking southern Colorado to the state’s Western Slope.
As the Polis administration continues to focus almost exclusively on planning for passenger rail in the northern Front Range and the northern mountains between Denver and Craig, some rail advocates, experts and elected officials are urging the state to study the out-of-service Union Pacific rail line between Pueblo and western Eagle County that last saw freight trains in 1997.
In late October, members of the recently formed Western Rail Coalition fired off a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) requesting the state conduct a service development plan (SDP) for light-rail-style passenger service on the Tennessee Pass line between Glenwood Springs and Leadville, connecting to the Eagle County Regional Airport…