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Utah crude trains could be rolling through Colorado after Forest Service denies objections to new rail line

It’s looking likely that heated train cars loaded with a waxy crude oil will be rolling through Colorado after the Forest Service last week rejected objections to the proposed new rail line in a section of roadless forest in Utah.   “We are going to continue to fight this terrible project with every tool available to […]

Posted inNews, Outsider, Transportation

Trains will carry “waxy crude” oil through Colorado every day after Utah approves new railway

The Surface Transportation Board’s recent approval of a new 88-mile railroad in Utah’s Uinta Basin has spiked concerns that daily trains loaded with heated crude oil will be traveling along Colorado’s river corridors. “It’s a ticking carbon bomb,” said Michael Kunkel, whose Friends of Browns Canyon last summer successful campaigned to block an expedited proposal […]

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Transportation board kills plan for trains to return to Colorado’s dormant Tennessee Pass

The Surface Transportation Board on Thursday rejected a plan by a rail operator to revive train traffic on Colorado’s mountainous Tennessee Pass Line.  Colorado Midland & Pacific Railway Company — a new division of Texas-based Rio Grande Pacific Corp. — asked the transportation board on Dec. 31, 2020 for streamlined approval of its plan to […]

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Potential operator of trains on Colorado’s Tennessee Pass promises rail line wouldn’t transport crude oil

Colorado Midland & Pacific Railroad, which is vying to run trains across the long-dormant Tennessee Pass Line between Cañon City and Gypsum, promises it will never transport crude oil, coal or hazardous materials on the line.  The nascent railroad operator’s plan to return trains to the line that has been idle since 1997 riled residents […]

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Opponents urge federal board to reject revival of Tennessee Pass railroad along Arkansas, Eagle rivers

Opposition to the plan to revive long-dormant rail traffic on Tennessee Pass is growing by the day.  Residents of Chaffee, Lake and Eagle counties buried the Surface Transportation Board this month with opposition to the plan proposed by a Texas-based, short-line operator to begin running freight and possibly passengers on tracks that last saw trains […]

Posted inBusiness, Economy, Environment, Transportation

New plans for rail traffic over Colorado’s Tennessee Pass spark protest from grain-hauling competitor

The Rio Grande Pacific Corp., based in Fort Worth, Texas, has the lease to run trains on the long-dormant lines between Cañon City and Dotsero. But it will be many years before passenger cars and tankers filled with the freight-mover’s crude oil traverse Tennessee Pass — and not just because costs to fix the line […]