April 08
Colorado Confidential has a piece discussing how former Vail mayor and Salzburg, Austria native Ludwig Kurz wants to see “European-style” ski trains connecting Denver to the mountain resort towns.
“It’s funny to walk along the streets in Innsbruck any day of the winter and see people with ski boots on and skis over their shoulders, and you think, ‘Where the heck are they going?’” Kurz said of the city of about 120,000 in western Austria. “It would be like walking down the 16th Street Mall and seeing someone with goggles on and fully ready to ski. In Europe you would think, ‘Of course, he’s going skiing.’”
Congestion on I-70 and soaring fuel costs have conspired to give renewed impetus for some sort of mass transit system along the corridor that connects Denver and the entire Front Range to Colorado’s most popular mountain resorts. Previous efforts to pursue mountain rail in the state have been shot down by voters.
Wow, what a great idea! But, um …
CAN WE GET THE FUCKING LIGHT-RAIL FIRST?
Seriously, can we extend that handy-dandy line aaaaaall the way down I-25 before we start building more tracks willy-nilly? Let’s extend the convenience and Mother Earth love to all of the front range (yes, even Pueblo) before building boutique lines. Sure, traffic on I-70 is often horrible, but no worse that I-25 on a Broncos game day.
“The major difference between Europe and here is that that Europeans have grown up with trains and we haven’t necessarily grown up with trains here. Beyond that, it obviously works very well in Europe,” Kurz said.
That’s great for you and great for Europe, Uter, but southern Colorado needs some of that love first. Versteht?
Posted by: Aaron Retka in COSsip | Permalink
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6 Responses to “Call me old-fashioned, but I think trains are kick-ass.”
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I also think trains are kick ass! If they actually build that fucker I vow to be first one to hop it for free!
What an odd coincidence to see this post, today. I am in Denver as I type. Came up here to do a little “work” (wink, nudge) - er, actually I’m up here killing time while waiting to pick my mom up from the airport and really sitting at a coffee shop doing paperwork, because my life is meth-free, male escort deprived and in all honesty rather boring.
Anyways, I was driving up I-25 and gazing with longing at the end of the light rail track in that little tan, taupe, and tauper suburban eyesore of Lone Tree. How grand if I could read on my way up to Denver rather than dodge SUVs. How nice to shoot up to Denver on a Friday night for a change of scene with no worries about driving back. SIGH….
Aaron,
I’m as train-horny as you are, but I have to correct your nomenclature, and with it your presuppositions. If there’s ever a train between the springs and Denver, it won’t be considered light rail. Light rail is an on-grade, urban system meant for rapid onloading and offloading of passengers. Sure, on a trian from here to Denver I’d love to hop off at Larkspur to see the Rennaisance festival once a year, but that is not the makings of an urban mass-transit system.
Traintrack costs per linear foot, and it’s the linear density of passengers that allow for such systems in densly populated areas. We don’t have those in the massive cowfields between here and Denver. Denver can afford light-rail systems because they have such linear density, whereas we have trouble maintaining an 8-times daily bus system to there. These concerns render a railroad completely out of the question.
I’m not saying this doesn’t suck, and I’m not happy I don’t have an expedient way to get up to Denver. Maybe the rich pseudo-austrian skiers can eventually succeed in inuring us to the mentality, but you could at least correct your expectations and nomenclature. There are significant engineering and economic differences between running a train from downtown Denver to Park Meadows and from there, across 50 miles of wasteland, across the Palmer Divide.
Dear Anonymous poster,
I appreciate interjections from more rational and well informed minds, but can’t you leave us to our near erotic fantasies about a near-European lifestyle? Yeah, we’re deluded, but our delusions are all we have left.
Let us daydream in peace….
Dear Anonymous,
I will never give up my dreams. Never.
We need something like the Portland area has, which is the Amtrack Cascades line, unfortunatley as stated it does well by going to destination spots but it seems this could be handled by including a line into the mountains as numerous people have mentioned how nice Euro-style alpine trains would be in the region:
Portland Union Station - Passenger Train Service
Portland Union Station is served by three scheduled Amtrak intercity passenger trains.
With three daily departures between Seattle and Portland, as well as daily service to Vancouver, B.C., the Amtrak Cascades is a convenient link to the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Amtrak Cascades’ European-style trains offer laptop computer outlets; bicycle, ski and snowboard racks; and regional food and drink. With service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C., Amtrak Cascades is perfect for both business travel and weekend getaways.