High-speed rail study has neighbors nervous

Posted: Aug 22, 2012 5:50 PM by Matt Stafford

So just how long could it be before there's more than just cars zipping down the Front Range? The Colorado Department of Transportation is studying the possibility of installing a high-speed rail line from Fort Collins to Pueblo.

"It's 15 to 20 years at the very earliest before anything would be implemented," explains Bob Wilson, a spokesman for C-DOT.

"Colorado is just going to expand in population over the next 20 years," says Wilson. "It behooves us to look at all the different options, whether it's the current rail line, the I-25 corridor, or points further east."

Of the options being looked at, one proposed alignment runs next to I-25, another goes farther east - running right through Black Forest. That line has gotten residents attention.

"I do think that it should not go through Black Forest; I mean why?" asks Diane Hoover, a Black Forest resident. She had just signed a petition that has been making its way around the community.

"We've collected 300-plus signatures so far," says Jim Egan, a Black forest resident.

Egan has been helping gather the signatures. He doesn't see the point of a train coming through Black Forest.

"It's quiet, it's peaceful, it's private, it's safe; people move out here for those attributes, they don't move out here to be near a train," says Egan.

Egan's also worried about property values dropping.

"It is not the spot where you're going to pick up the most ridership; that, of course, is on the I-25 corridor," Egan says.

"That's what the feasibility study will tell us," says Wilson. "Where would the riders be along that?"

"I-25 very well could be the best rail line, that's what we need to determine at this point," Wilson adds.

For more on the group of Black Forest residents against the Greenfield Alignment, click here.

For more on C-DOT's Interregional Connectivity Study on the rail line, click here.