Posted on 08/24/2019 11:57:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A high-speed transit system through the mountain corridor could serve as a major economic boon to communities on the Western Slope, according to a new study recently published by Development Research Partners.
A high-speed transit system — likely in the form of a train that would carry passengers and light freight between Denver International Airport and Eagle County Regional Airport — was listed in the 2011 Record of Decision issued by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration as a potential long-term solution to dealing with congestion on Interstate 70.
Late last year, stakeholders — including the I-70 Coalition, CDOT and Summit and Eagle counties, among others — funded a study to look at the potential economic impact a transit system could have on the mountain corridor.
“High-speed transit is one of three components of the long-term plan for the I-70 mountain corridor that was issued by the Federal Highways Administration and the Colorado Department of Transportation,” said Margaret Bowes, director of the I-70 Coalition, a nonprofit organization representing 28 local governments and businesses in the area. “While funding remains a challenge, this study provides valuable information for communities along the corridor and for CDOT and local transportation planners to take into account when considering the financial feasibility of a high-speed transit system in the mountain corridor.”
Visitor impacts
Visitors are a huge part of the economy on the Western Slope. In 2018, an estimated 25 million visitors came through the I-70 mountain corridor to recreate, more than 9.2 million of which were out-of-state visitors.
(Excerpt) Read more at skyhinews.com ...
Hey, I know. How about a bullet train/high speed rail syste...... Oh.
PING.
I worked Colorado’s State Senators on this. There was no interest due to conflicting political interests.
Gigantic waste of money, as all rail transit projects are.
If a tree fell in the forest......
Study suggests high speed transit system could provide huge amounts of cash from public coffers to politicians and connected government contractors.
If a choo choo ran off the rails in the Colorado Mountains, and nobody was riding on it . . .
Well if it would get all the damn skiers and skis out of the airport and off the existing shuttles and rental cars there would surely be a benefit to the rest of those who travel.
Elon Musk’s hyperloop: Now that makes sense.
I live in the Western Slope. The town is already overrun in the summer. Bumper to bumper all the time. I-70 has been closed at times 3 of the last 4 weekends do to some major accidents. We don’t need any more people. Go somewhere else.
Elon Musk’s hyperloop: Now that makes sense.
Kind of, but the rocks are difficult to bore through, why go with a halfway measure?
Complex quantum teleportation achieved for the first time
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-complex-quantum-teleportation.html
Probably cost way less than Californias train to nowhere?
Just be careful about any insects in the transporter with you!
That’s actually a good argument behind both widening I-70 and funding part of that construction with tolls. The tolls, especially if they’re higher for periods of high traffic, would discourage some of the “invaders” from coming, and part of the proceeds could fund a wrecker service to clean up accidents more quickly.
Kirk and Spock?
Denver Int’l Airport to Eagle County Regional Airport via high speed rail requires transit thru the Moffat tunnel and Grandby (current AMTRAK route) would be a very circuitous route to Eagle. Unless they are proposing a more direct route which would have to be constructed (at enormous cost) this isn’t much of a high speed corridor plan. The highway traffic on I-70 is very heavy ... particularly on Friday thru mid-day Saturday westbound from Denver and Sunday afternoon eastbound returning to Denver, particularly during ski season.
The past couple of times I’ve been in that area, I’ve just been passing through, so no need to worry about me cluttering up your area.
However, if I did move there, I would be a mostly-reliable conservative vote, anyhow.
Public-private toll road operators deeply saddened.
What’s so funny is the Liberals have become all about the choo-choo train - which was critical in the 19th century of course but matters really not at all in the 21st-century
They try to use the term “high speed rail” all the time which is absolutely meaningless because it’s far too dangerous to be traveling around at 160 miles an hour on the ground unless it’s a very contained environment
Like urban japan
Public works projects have been a specialty of liberals and unions for millennia if not multiple millennia
Road repair road relocation adding lanes re-paving
So they’re trying to add the choo-choo train back which is another big boondoggle for the witness here in California where they’ve spent $200 billion and not one piece of track has been laid
I live near Glenwood. The canyon is never going to be widened. It was hard enough to build it in the first place. There is not enough capacity through town either, and no good way to fix the problem.
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