Colorado's governor wants passenger rail vote and mountain trains
If you ask Colorado's governor, the through line to solving the state's housing, climate and transportation problems is a train track.
Driving the news: Gov. Jared Polis believes now is the moment for Colorado to build high-speed passenger rail lines on existing ones along the Front Range and into the mountains to relieve traffic along the Interstate 25 and 70 corridors.
The second-term Democrat is pushing for a 2024 ballot measure that asks voters along the Front Range to back a train from Pueblo to Fort Collins at a cost upwards of $14 billion.
At the same time, the administration is reviving a decades-long discussion for a state-funded train service into the mountains, most likely from Denver to Winter Park and Steamboat Springs, to relieve congestion in the winter and on holiday weekends.
Why it matters: The projects combined would amount to the most significant transportation investments in recent state history, and create a test for the popularity of the governor, mass transit and tax hikes.