A train to the mountains revisited
Why is this person so happy. Because while it is dumping rain outside and other poor souls are driving with white knuckles fighting traffic, the elements, and sleep she is cozy in her train cabin sipping a drink, reading a book, and watching the beautiful outdoors go by.
This is what we need from Denver to Vail (With a stop in Summit of course). I just drove down from another mountain excursion this morning and while I was blown away as always by the view, I couldn’t help but think how nice it would be to have been sitting and reading my paper while making the journey.
And this was a beautiful uncrowded day. But when I went up on Sunday I-70 was PACKED with cars heading down. Nothing compared to the ski season but certainly another reason to get on a train.
Just picture this. You head over to Union Station and grab a nice warm cup of coffee, a newspaper or book, and some of your best buds. You load all of your stuff onto your train car and grab a wonderful cabin with benches and curl up. The snow outside is dumping and the weather is freezing. The roads are going to be icy, if open at all. But you will make the trip to Vail in bliss surrounded by laughter, warmth and friends.
When you are hungry or thirsty you eat and drink. When you have to use the bathroom you do (but leave your cabin for this). When you are tired you sleep. You are safe.
The train might even have a dining or bar car where you can grab a bite or a drink. The folks going to and from the mountains might be the perfect audience to make this work. 
Or who knows what other luxury is possible. Perhaps a massage after hours of pow pow skiing or rock hopping biking.
Or maybe the train simply has seats that look out the mountains and allow all of these comforts with gorgeous views. Either way, it is a better experience than driving in a car.
And would you like to know what makes it even better? If it is planned out right we can
1: Promote alternative transportation
2: Reduce many many carbon footprints (my biggest violation is that drive to and from the mountains)
3: Make it a fun, fun journey for many people.
So why am I bringing this up again? Because I want to get started with planning, designing, and more before we go and add another lane of traffic to I-70. Or at the bare minimum we can try and send a message that we support this direction and promote the idea that it might happen (hopefully sooner rather than later).
And yes, I know there are challenges. But those challenges become greater every day that we continue doing short term solutions such as expanding lanes. Let’s support a long term solution with environmental responsibility.
Plus it will be more fun. And just to see if there is an interest out there please show your support at this ipetition here. Maybe it will even show enough support to encourage a private investment firm to get involved as discussed in the Denver Post. It doesn’t matter who does the train, what matters is folks get out of their cars.
Pass it on!!
Here is the scoop from when it was voted down from High Speed Monorail
Colorado I-70: state says highway, not monorail (1/13/05)
Denver, Colorado. Colorado transportation officials are sticking to their belief that a high-speed monorail is not the way to solve highway congestion from Denver to Vail. Their vision is for more pavement, by widening Interstate 70 through the busy mountain corridor. Last month the state released a draft environmental review that favors widening I-70, while rejecting both a high-speed monorail or a conventional rail line as too costly. In the first of ten public hearings on the I-70 mountain corridor study, almost 200 people showed up Wednesday to voice their opinion. Most of them favored monorail and said CDOT’s idea to widen the highway will be outdated when completed by 2025 as proposed. A plan for a Colorado High-Speed Monorail using inverted-T rail technology lost steam when Colorado voters turned down money for a test track in 2002. That proposal was described derogatorily as a “Disneyland ride” by Governor Bill Owens, which helped sway voters against the ballot measure.
The vote below is for the blog…. the real vote is available
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19 comments
the ski train to winter park does almost everything you mentioned here minus the Vail part.
Totally agree it does all the same things for serving Winter Park, but without service to Vail and Summit a huge market is missed and I 70 will continue to be congested.
And not having the Vail/Summit piece is the biggest missing item.
I would whole-heartedly agree with a train to the mountains where you could be met with buses to the local ski resorts. It would aleviate much of the I-70 traffic and would probably boost the number of skiers headed to the mountains. However, it would be hugely expensive, but needed for the long term. Just as important - it needs to hooked up to DIA so tourists have the option of riding a train instead of renting a car. Getting a carload of texan tourists trying to navigate icy roads in the winter just adds to everyone’s dilimna. The question becomes - at what ticket price does it become cost prohibitive? I’m guessing a round-trip might be popular at $50, but not much more.
And by the way - who is that girl riding alone in the train car? You didn’t find out whether she’s single, did you..? Damn.. she’s cute!
Just a borrowed pic so I’m sorry I can’t pass on her number. But a great promotion for train travel.
PLEASE VOTE here and not just on this blog.
You can also digg this story to help support it
digg this story
How often would the runs need to be to make it valuable to you? I would think every hour both ways from 7 am until 10 pm would be great. Even from 7 am to 6 pm would work. What do you think.
Article from an attempt earlier to study this here
[...] Our friend at the urban brain has a blog post about why he wants to see a train between Denver and Vail. I think it sounds like a great idea. If you live in CO or go out there often, check it out, vote and let him know what you think. [...]
I love the idea. Experiencing the ever-growing traffic on I-70 to the mountains is all it would take to get a few more people on board (no pun intended). The traffic problem is not getting any better, offering an alternative such as train travel would make sense.
Now that FasTracks is coming together, mountain people could come to town, use the lightrail to commute and go back home, without ever needing a personal vehicle.
kk
[...] or fatigued motorists. Many who live between Denver and Vail see the idea of the project as an unsightly attempt at Disney-tizing the pristine mountains. Those who fly in to Eagle County Airport for their vacations also snub their noses at the idea, as [...]
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