Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) Community Q&A in Longmont, April 8, 2026

A group from the Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) District and local city and education officials led a short presentation and Q&A session on Wednesday evening, April 8, 2026 at the Longmont Museum auditorium. It was well-attended, with 2/3 of the auditorium full.  

A quick summary before the details:

• A three times/day train service between Denver and Ft. Collins is funded now and will start in 2029, using BNSF tracks.  
  
  
• Upon voter approval, train service will be extended between Denver and Pueblo.  See next point.  
  
  
  
  
  
• Voters will be asked in a ballot measure to approve a new tax to support the train and its extension to Pueblo, either on sales or property taxes but it is not yet known what year this will happen.  One of the purposes of these town halls is to assess voter sentiment.  It could happen this year (2026).  There are 16 to 18 of these community Town Halls planned along the Front Range to gather input on this important milestone.  
  
  
• Train service is also funded by fees assessed on rental cars and oil & gas licenses.  
  
  
• And you may have heard,  "CoCo" (Colorado Connection) was the winner of the train naming contest, announced by Governor Polis.
  
  
  
  
  

Onto some background:

FRPR was chartered in 2021 by the State General Assembly to address two main issues:  air quality and congested highways.  FRPR believes their rider base will come from these three segments (more on this below):

• Jobs (commuters)
• Education (students)
• Recreation (games, events, leisure)

The City of Longmont has big plans for the train, including a station and a surrounding mixed business and residential apartments complex.  And Front Range Community College (FRCC) is also constructing a brand new campus downtown, across from Main Street from the Transportation Center.  Watch for a separate posting on this in the future. 

As a data point for the benefits of a rail station, it was mentioned that the 2014 Denver Union Station renovation has brought in $16B of investment in surrounding business and residential facilities.  

To support the Education ridership segment, Ethan Johnson (FRCC VP Operations) presented their case that the train will be vital for their new location.  

 
The long term "vision" of FRPR is to extend the service north to Cheyenne and south to Albuquerque. 

 
And now some personal observations and perspectives, these definitely don't represent FRPR views.  You may think these are on the pessimistic side but I do like trains and public transportation where it makes sense, and there is responsible leadership and governance.  

• The so-called "elephant in the room" was the RTD FasTracks fiasco where Longmont and Boulder County residents have been paying for a rail service since 2005 which has never happened.  Back in 2008, I naively thought FasTracks would really be delivered here.  Estimates say Longmont taxpayers have paid $60M so far into FasTracks and Boulder County (BoCo) $220M.  No doubt the presenters were aware about FasTracks voter anger and I only counted three times where it was quickly mentioned, across all speakers.  It did take courage for them to come to Longmont to talk about a Train 2.0 project when we're still paying for 1.0 that has never been started.  I'm sure this sentiment will also play out in other future BoCo meetings on the schedule.
  
  In hearing some of the pointed questions, audience reactions, and talking to others after the event, I believe FRPR's only hope in getting "Yes" votes to a FRPR tax ballot item from Longmont voters is to reach out to the newer residents that don't have FasTraks memories or knowledge.  It's very difficult for a long-time Longmont resident to see the existing RTD light rail infrastructure to Golden, Littleton, Douglas County, and Westminster knowing that we helped pay for it with zero benefit to us.  With their behavior and actions, RTD has explicitly said that those communities are more important than Longmont and Boulder County. RTD is, by the way, on the board of FRPR.
  
  
• Is there even a steady commuter base anymore for Longmont to Denver?  The pandemic changed commuting habits, downtown Denver is quiet now compared to the boom years, the 16th Street Mall (it's been renamed to something else) is deserted during the daytime, and skyscraper office buildings that used to hold workers on 17th Street are being sold for ten cents on the dollar, to be converted to apartments. 
  
  As a reasonable comparison, the BART train in the California Bay Area is suffering financially due to much lower ridership into San Francisco (SF), and has their own new sales tax item on the ballot in November to keep it running.  The New York Times reported last month that BART ridership is down 50% since the pandemic and that their trains are mostly empty on Fridays.  If the ballot item doesn't pass, up to 13 BART stations could be closed.  This is a train system that used to sustain itself just on passenger fares during peak downtown employment .  If commuter numbers are way down to SF, why would commuting behavior to Denver be any different?

  

  New York Times, March 10, 2026

  
  I asked about this very point and the answer was that BART was specifically designed as a commuter train whereas FRPR is targeting the two other ridership segments that I mentioned above, in addition to commuting.  The model they are aiming for are the successful Amtrak Mardi Gras (Mobile to New Orleans) and Borealis (Chicago/Milwaukee/Minneapolis) train lines, which don't primarily target commuters.
  
  The City Manager of Longmont also addressed this question and said they are looking to attract commuters in the reverse direction, to Longmont.  
  
  
• Two slides showed Denver Broncos (NFL) fans and they mentioned they were in talks to bring a station to the proposed new stadium in south Denver (Burnham Yard).   I understand their popularity but they only play ~8 to 10 games/year to a very selective and limited audience.  Seemed a little gratuitous to bring in the Broncos to a train presentation.
  
  

And now on to some shorter items from the Q&A portion, all paraphrased by me:

Q:  Is Diesel the correct fuel choice for a train these days?  What about Electric?
A: Diesel is the target for 2029 but there is future technology (batteries, Hydrogen) that could be used for electrification.  BNSF will not allow overhead electric lines.

Q: Will the service start in 2029 if the stations are not completed?
A: Yes, the train will run.  Longmont City Manager added that Longmont is very committed to completing their station on time and have been actively working on it for a while now.  

Q: Will only three trips per day in 2029 deter ridership?
A: Three trips is the start, more will be added. 

Q: Will this train be subject to Federal budget cuts?
A: FRPR is state funded and is not dependent on Federal funding.

Q:  BNSF occasionally has freight trains stalled on the tracks, how will this affect on-time passenger rail service?  (My note:  Two Sundays ago, there was a stalled train blocking South Hover Street for four hours in Longmont).  
A: New sidings are in the plan to allow freight trains to pull over. 

Q: BNSF was a major obstacle to FasTracks deployment, what has changed?
A: BNSF management is different now and more receptive to a passenger service here.  Also, BNSF freight capacity is less now than 20 years ago, leaving more room to share their tracks with FRPR.  [A joint FRPR/BNSF press conference announced for Thursday, April 9 was mentioned, I haven't had a chance to take a look at the outcome yet.]

On a final note, Longmont had a train to Denver in the 1880's which took 1.5 hours one-way and commonly carried passengers of the recreational type (called "excursions" back then) of which FRPR is partially aiming for themselves. All eyes will be watching FRPR to see if they can hit their 2029 milestone and help to restore Longmont confidence with our regional transportation authorities.