Re: NNG: Colorado DOT explores market for passenger train cars and locomotives [for Denver to Craig service]

I spent the majority of the last 10 years of my FRA career with the FRA Passenger Rail Division, which was formed to be pro-active and assist state DOT's, local agencies and existing operations with the understanding of the required safety regulations when planning these type of passenger rail projects. Among many others, I was involved with the RTD, SMART, and Redlands commuter rail projects as well as the launch of the Saratoga & North Creek in NY and the "Hoosier" intercity passenger services, both IPH projects. I have been involved in everything from trying to make older passenger equipment compliant for intercity service to review and involvement in preliminary design and regulatory compliance for modern Tier 3 High Speed Train Sets (Brightline West)

Starting an intercity or passenger railroad is not as simple as grabbing a locomotive and some heritage passenger cars and hoping that a class 1 or other privately owned railroad will make it affordable to operate over via trackage rights. Unlike heritage operations, the equipment as applicable, has to meet the minimum safety and ADA standards as outlined in the current regulations. Station platforms and other supporting infrastructure (track, signal, PTC, etc.) has similar requirements. Asking for information on equipment, which is the "shiny object" that gets the publics attention and generates "buzz" that may help promote interest. That is not unusual and sometimes not beneficial for the overall project. That does not mean you can't use older equipment, but to meet the modern expectations for speed and service, it isn't practical. Same for the proposed alignment. Proposing the use of existing rail may not allow the speeds needed to make a service viable. Building a new corridor, such as Denver RTD's "A" Line, or the proposed Brightline West and Texas Central projects makes more sense.

The bottom line, it requires careful planning and will cost lots of money. The question is, who will pay for it? Folks that want to get everywhere in a hurry, are generally in favor of this kind of transportation......as long as they do not have to pay for it.

For a narrow gauge connection, STADLER makes a real nice narrow gauge DMU and EMU Train Sets!

MD Ramsey



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2023 12:09PM by MD Ramsey.