Letter from Keith Baker
Transportation – September 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Only one transportation arterial consisting of segments of Highways 24, 50, and 285 runs the length of the Upper Arkansas Valley. An unused railroad parallels this route. High speed light commuter rail would reduce vehicle miles traveled and all sorts of pollution, probably increase tourism revenues, and serve as an attraction for our area. Citizens of several counties wish they had an existing rail line. Some can, like the Roaring Fork Valley and I-70 corridor, even rue a day they allowed a rail line to be torn up or defeated light rail proposals (NOTE: a high speed monorail would have come with the 1976 Winter Olympics).
Chaffee County recently joined the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority whose members include most of these rueful counties and municipalities to study high speed rail feasibility for Colorado. What can you do to help us seize the opportunity for light commuter rail for Chaffee County and the Upper Arkansas Valley region, and keep us from being one of those areas saying coulda-shoulda?
And, by the way, one of the leading manufacturers of such systems, Colorado Railcar, is in Fort Lupton, Colorado.
This would not prevent Trails WITH Rails in areas where we could have them. There are funding sources specifically for Trails WITH Rails. We would want the rail to be part of an integrated network consisting of trails, small buses, park-n-ride lots, etc.
Keith Baker
Buena Vista
