Front Range Passenger Rail Tax Pitch

The Denver Post’s Bruce Finley reports that Colorado rail boosters are now inviting the public to help name the proposed Front Range passenger train before voters have even decided whether they want to tax themselves to build the thing. The article says leaders behind the project unveiled four finalists and opened online voting while they continue refining a possible ballot measure that could ask for a half-cent sales tax increase to help fund the multibillion-dollar rail buildout.

Finley lays out the sales pitch in familiar terms. The train is supposed to connect Front Range cities, ease traffic, reduce pollution, and offer a shiny new alternative to driving up and down Interstate 25. The article also notes that the district sees this as a long-haul, multi-generational service, complete with branding help from marketing firms and lawyers who even had to weed out name ideas that would have created trademark problems. Because naturally, before the public has signed the check, the consultants have already arrived.

The piece also makes clear that this is not some little side project. A starter service linking Denver, Boulder, Longmont, and Fort Collins is envisioned for 2029, while the full corridor from Trinidad to Fort Collins comes with an eye-watering price tag and ongoing operating costs. So yes, the state is already letting people pick the ribbon color on the gift box before anyone has settled how many billions will go inside.

The Bullet Point Brief

Colorado rail leaders want voters to help name the train before the tax vote even happens. Nothing says fiscal discipline like branding the fantasy first.
The four finalist names are the sort of consultant-polished mush you get when a committee tries to sound exciting without offending anybody. Different clowns, same circus.
The article says a half-cent sales tax increase could still land on the November ballot, with cities along the corridor getting revenue shares for local train-related projects. Because once government finds a new toy, every hand in the room suddenly needs an allowance.
The proposed starter service would run from Denver to Fort Collins by way of Boulder and Longmont, with the bigger dream stretching all the way to Trinidad. As usual, the promise starts small and the appetite does not.
Officials say the train could run on existing tracks, hit speeds competitive with driving, and maybe charge relatively modest fares for some trips. Translation: here comes another glossy brochure explaining why this time the math will definitely work.

My Bottom Line

As long as Jared Polis has been governor, he has wanted a shiny choo-choo. In his mind, that silver bullet is going to heal congestion, modernize Colorado, and turn the Rocky Mountain West into the kind of trendy urban experiment that political romantics seem to think is the height of civilization. New York. San Francisco. Los Angeles. Hard pass. Colorado does not need to become a knockoff version of places already choking on their own failed priorities.

And let’s talk about the part that hits closer to home. Weld County got dragged into this district even though the train would not even stop here. That was always the scam hiding in plain sight. Fold in communities that do not benefit, pad the tax base, and let the Denver-Boulder Bubble outvote everybody else with a smile on its face. I smelled that skunk a mile away. Thankfully, Senator Kirkmeyer did too and got Weld removed from the district before we got taxed for somebody else’s transit daydream.

Of course, nobody should kid themselves that Weld escapes the bill entirely. If this thing gets traction, Polis’ rail obsession will still vacuum up transportation dollars from every corner of the state. And when the sales tax is not enough, because these projects are never enough, the sweep begins. Money that ought to build and maintain roads gets arm-swept into the shiny-railed fetish instead. Roads? Who needs those? Apparently we are supposed to believe traffic problems vanish if you give a train a cute name and a government logo.

That is the part that makes this article almost too perfect. The state is asking people to vote on a name before the public has even voted on whether the thing deserves to exist in the first place. The kiddies get to name the choo-choo before the grownups have finished asking who pays, who benefits, and who gets stuck holding the bag when the math falls apart. Narrative first, truth if there’s room.

Vote no. Send Denver a message that enough is enough with the pie-in-the-sky fantasies, the consultant theater, and the taxpayer-funded vanity projects. Colorado does not need another glossy symbol of elite priorities. It needs functioning roads, sane spending, and fewer politicians trying to turn the Front Range into a rolling monument to their own urban nostalgia.

Source: The Denver Post