By Chase Bierenkoven
The Regional Transportation District will spend millions on marketing for a plan to run passenger rail service to Boulder and beyond.
The RTD board on Wednesday night agreed to spend $3 million, down from an initial request for $5 million, on outreach and education for a segment of the proposed “Colorado Connector” line that would connect Denver to Boulder.
The money could help publicize the project before voters are asked to approve funding for it and the rest of the Front Range Passenger rail district.
Supporters said the money would help fulfill RTD's broken promise to run its own rail service to Boulder. But some on the board said RTD couldn't afford the investment, citing its massive budget deficit, which members of the board have already said will lead to service cuts. State leaders are hoping RTD will eventually contribute well over $100 million to develop the line.
“I do not see how we could possibly pay for this without more cuts than what is already on the table,” said JoyAnn Ruscha, RTD District B director, in an interview before the meeting.
The Colorado Connector, also known as Front Range Passenger Rail, is a state-run plan to run trains up and down the Front Range, starting with service from Denver to Boulder.
Officials described the money as a bridge loan from RTD to the project.
How will the money be used?
FRPR officials asked RTD to provide the $3 million before August. The money will help the district market its project to the public ahead of a potential vote in this November’s election. But FRPR officials said the money would not be used for “advocacy” or to support the political campaign, instead saying it was for “statutory planning and informational outreach.”
FRPR leaders wrote in a letter that they were “prepared” to repay the money “after successful voter approval” of the ballot measure to fund the project.
“We believe RTD’s expanded partnership and investment in FRPRD will render clear benefits to RTD and to the traveling public we share. Advancing Front Range Rail will expand regional mobility, strengthen connections to RTD’s system, and create new opportunities for integrated service across the entire Front Range,” FRPR officials wrote in an earlier letter to RTD leadership.
In a board meeting presentation, Front Range Passenger Rail General Manager Sal Pace said that most of the money would go to marketing.
The FRPR district has already raised $3 million from the Colorado Department of Transportation for planning, research, public engagement, and ballot preparation. But the CDOT funding cannot be used for marketing — unlike the money that RTD just agreed to provide.
Final details of the spending will be hammered out via a new intergovernmental agreement with RTD.
While the majority of funds are dedicated to items like branding, “graphics and media,” and communications, FRPR has also asked for approximately $950,000 for “broad-based educational outreach and coalition engagement throughout RTD’s service area and the broader Front Range corridor.” A further $100,000 covers public feedback research and analysis, transportation preference research, and other research items like station-area planning.
Service to Boulder could cost more than $300 million, and that's only part of Front Range rail.
State officials recently announced they had secured an agreement with the BNSF railroad that would allow the creation of the initial rail service to Boulder, with three daily round trips and a capital cost of $333 million, along with a $30 million in annual costs.
RTD’s contribution to the Boulder segment could be far more than what was approved Wednesday. A preliminary term sheet estimated that RTD could contribute up to $156 million, or close to half of the construction cost, for the line.
RTD’s board signed on to those cost estimates last month, and also agreed to provide $5.6 million to fund the design of the line within the regional district.
The biggest spending, to build the line, would require future RTD board approval. But the board making the decision could look a lot different: A new state law will significantly change the makeup of the RTD board, part of a long-running effort to reform RTD that was sparked in large part by its failure to build a train to Boulder.
The line to Boulder, also known as the Northwest Corridor, is expected to be the first phase of the broader FRPR project, eventually running as far north as Fort Collins and south to Pueblo or even Trinidad.
Denverite editor Andrew Kenney contributed to this article.
