Amtrak's return could put station at Otto Road

Michael Van Cassell

Oct. 6, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- CHEYENNE -- Amtrak trains could be chugging through Cheyenne again, depending on the decision of Congress.

Well, maybe not through Cheyenne, but close enough.

Two of four different options in a recently released Amtrak feasibility study have passenger trains serving Cheyenne at the Borie Station -- which really is no longer there, but once stood about eight miles southwest of town off Otto Road.

Rolling trains through downtown Cheyenne via the Colorado communities of Boulder, Longmont and Fort Collins would add too much time for passengers traveling from Denver to the West Coast, the draft study concluded.

The study suggested for two of its options to use the Borie location, which was used when the Pioneer Route formerly was in service until 1997.

"That site didn't work very well for Cheyenne residents because it's not in the community, it's out on the prairie," explained Darren Rudloff, executive director of the Cheyenne Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

If Congress picks one of the two options, Amtrak trains will approach the Cheyenne area from Greeley, Colo., which is how the old route worked.

Rudloff indicated that the bureau, along with several other organizations in Cheyenne, supports Amtrak coming to Cheyenne and Wyoming in any form.

"Having it go through Borie would still be better than not having it at all," he said.

The other two options completely skip Cheyenne and Wyoming, using an existing rail line through Colorado to re-establish the Pioneer Route to the northwest part of the country.

Options to restore the route from Seattle to Denver and bring the train through Wyoming, with identified capital and mobilization costs, will be in excess of $400 million.

A final study is expected within the next two weeks and will be sent to Congress for consideration.

A Washington man who helped establish and now coordinates the Pioneer Restoration Organization was critical Monday of Amtrak's study.

C.B. Hall said they found a lot of deficiencies in the study and believed it addresses the past instead of the future.

"Amtrak seems incapable of stepping into the future with the Pioneer," Hall said. "In a sense, you are looking at a failed experiment, and you are looking to repeat it."

He called Borie a "pretty inferior place for Cheyenne's train station."

"I think that the study shows no inclination to put the pioneer's best foot forward," he said.

Robert Rynerson, who coordinates the Pioneer Restoration Organization for Colorado, said there are more people living in the Front Range corridor now than when the route operated before.

Rynerson also worked on the original route for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

He indicated the feasibility didn't fully address the BNSF (NYSE:BNI) line, which would connect Denver to Cheyenne through Boulder, Longmont and Fort Collins.

"They were kind of dismissive of it like it was some weedy branch line, but it's actually in pretty good shape," he said.

Rynerson said the Regional Transportation District in Colorado plans to signalize the line from Denver to Fort Collins, and that there is historical evidence it can be operated from there to Cheyenne without signals.

He said a tradeoff for a slower trip would be picking up three important cities along the route.

In a response drafted to Amtrak, the Cascadia Center for Regional Development laid out arguments for a Cheyenne city limits stop.

"Contrary to the study's statement, access to the historic UP station in Cheyenne is possible, and other possibilities for the sitting of a station in central Cheyenne also exist," the center responded. "The study thus disregards Cheyenne's ridership and station possibilities; say nothing of the city's clear interest in the matter."

The Amtrak study addressed the BNSF line in a brief section and concluded with the following:

"While operation via the BNSF line is not feasible at the present time due to much longer trip times, it could be a viable alternative in the future if proposals to upgrade the line for high-speed rail service come to fruition."

Amtrak officials did not return a phone call to their West Coast public relations division in Oakland, Calif. for comment on this story.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0045-38588383