My Solution to I70 Traffic Problems

Type in I70 on google and the first thing that comes up is "I70 Traffic Jam".  Many small measures have been taken to reduce the delays, but the number of people traveling on that corridor is still growing, and has or will outgrow the improvements that have already been done.  There are even some horror stories that Denver locals have given up skiing because they just could not avoid the gridlock.

As an aspiring engineer, I devised a plan to eradicate I70 traffic for good, and still increase travel to and from the mountains.  My solution is the construction of The Colorado Ski Train.  There used to be such a train that went to Winter Park, and you can still do the same trip on Amtrak's California Zephyr route.  However, the service was discontinued in 2009.  While many people liked it, the trip took over 2 hours and only ran once a day, so many people didn't ride it as it was not convenient or practical.  

I have mapped out a new and improved railroad system that serves 15 ski areas that are relatively close to I70, and cause a lot of traffic on it.  Station list is below.

Denver Int'l Airport
Denver Union Station
I70 Park and Ride
(via express)
Echo Mountain Park (limited service)
Keystone (only Vail/Beaver Creek bound trains)
(via local)
Eldora
Winter Park
Loveland
A Basin
(all trains)
Silverthorne
Frisco
(via Aspen Branch)
Breckenridge
Ski Cooper
Aspen (serves 4 ski areas)
(via Vail Branch)
Copper
Vail
Beaver Creek

An 8 track terminal station would be built at the airport, used by anyone flying into Denver and wanting to go directly to the mountains.  Trains would run along a new commuter line that goes to Union Station in downtown Denver, but run express, skipping all intermediate stops.  There would be connections here to Denver's light rail and local bus routes, so anyone living in Denver with access to public transportation would probably use this stop.  After this stop, trains would run along one of Denver's light rail lines, skipping all intermediate stops to a park and ride station adjacent to I70.  This station would be used by anyone who wanted to ride the train to the mountains, but needed to drive to a station to access it.

Following that station the lines would enter the mountains and branch off.  The express route would go due west with the first station being Echo Mountain Park.  It is a very small ski area and would have more limited service than other stops.  I included it because part of the way to fund the entire project is through an Olympic bid, and I could see that place possibly having the ski jumps and bobsled runs.  Some trains would go to Keystone and others would skip it and head to Silverthorne.

The local route would head north and make stops at Eldora, Winter Park, Loveland, and A Basin before joining back up with the express route in Silverthorne.  Trains using this route would terminate at Frisco (stop after Silverthorne).  Express trains would continue to either Avon/Beaver Creek or Aspen.

Trains heading to Avon/Beaver Creek would stop at Copper Mountain after Frisco and run along I70 to Avon.

Trains heading to Aspen would stop at Breckenridge after leaving Frisco and run along a completely new route, stopping at Ski Cooper (another small ski area) and then going directly to Aspen.

Most of the ski area stations would be right at the base of the mountain and would be funded by the ski area that it would be located at.  The exceptions to this are Avon and Aspen where the stations would be in the town instead.  This is because they are the furthest out points on the line and there are more overnight visitors, so it makes more sense to drop people off in the town instead of the ski area.

Travel times to all the destinations are as follows.  Times from the airport are given.  Subtract 12 minutes if starting at Union Station and subtract 20 minutes if starting at the park and ride.  Local trains to Frisco travel about 115 miles.  Express trains to Vail travel about 126 miles and express trains to Aspen travel about 173 miles.

Eldora:  36 minutes
Winter Park:  56 minutes
Loveland:  1:31
A Basin:  1:35
Echo Mountain Park:  36 minutes
Keystone:  56 minutes
Silverthorne:  1:05
Frisco:  1:09
Breckenridge:  1:14
Ski Cooper:  1:35
Aspen:  2:14
Copper:  1:15
Vail:  1:31
Beaver Creek:  1:39

I have mapped the entire thing out on Google Earth using elevation data to make sure everything is an acceptable grade for trains to handle.  This could definitely be built.  The biggest issues are funding and environmental issues.

Conceptually it is not a bad idea.
Vacationers would not use it because they want a car when they are in Dillon, but locals might.
With that said, you could bag the spur to the airport, no value there.
A park & ride at the Grade up from Golden might work, but what about April through December? It would get little usage. If you have ever been to A-basin, Loveland, Breck, Keystone, Copper, etc - they are spread out. I just don't see how you would make a train service all of these on a single route. By the time you got to Vail it would be time to turn around again.

The train to WP worked well. I did not know they dropped it. The last time I was there it was running. WP is hard to get to compared to the others, the trip over Berthoud pass can be "interesting" so the train through the tunnel worked well. However they shared the line with freight and that made it challenging.

One thing you need to realize is that the expense in rail is not in the Locomotives and cars, it's the track and every mile of track is astronomically expensive to build and to maintain - particularly if it goes through the mountains, requires bridges or in particular - tunnels. I urge you to read "Nothing Like it in the World" by Stephen Ambrose. You won't be able to put it down.

If you look at the map there are 2 routes for most of it.  There would need to be some tunnels and bridges to keep the line level.  I addressed the issue with funding, as well as environmental issues as the biggest factors that would prevent this from being done.  I suggested using an Olympic bid for Denver as a way to bring in some of the money to fund the construction costs.

The stops in Silverthore and Frisco are there to gain support of the locals, and it would be almost entirely locals using them.  Residents in those towns and day skiers are usually the ones that get shafted with the I70 gridlock.  Overnight visitors can usually change travel times to avoid it.  Also, bringing lots of luggage on a train wouldn't be easy for many.  That being said, there probably would be some value in still having service to the airport as some of the towns you don't need or necessarily want a car in.  Avon, Vail, and Aspen come to mind here.  Also, the airport spur would be on already existing track, so construction costs would be reduced.

Tickets would make the day rates seem affordable.

Next!

This has already been done...in Switzerland.

Zurich Airport has a train station and you can be at just about every ski area in the country within 2 hours by train.  In many areas there are off piste runs that end at train lines to take you back to town and the lifts.

I loved the Winter Park ski train.  Here's a self-serving link to my blog post about riding it back in 1991, with a few photos I took along the route (and then scanned 2 decades later for the blog).

I think the airport link could be a key driver for ridership.  Have baggage automatically transferred from your arriving airline directly to the train.  Make the round-trip cost for a family of 4 comparable to the cost or renting a car.

Travel times seem a bit aggressive.  You've got to allow time at each station stop for passengers to load / unload, and even day trippers will have checked baggage (forget about carrying your skis with you onto the train, what a nightmare that would be at each stop).  It's not like a commuter train that stops for 60 seconds.

How are you getting across the continental divide?  A new (super expensive) tunnel?  Does the proposed rail route stay entirely within existing travel corridors?  Much of the route is surrounded by designated wilderness areas that you can't simply punch a new rail line through.

As PT pointed out, the cost of building this would be phenomenally expensive.  Certainly many billions of dollars.  Would there really be sufficient ridership to eliminate the need for other expensive proposals to improve the I-70 travel corridor?  As much as I love trains, it's hard to separate Americans from their automobiles.

When I mapped it out, I estimated the travel times based on how many sharp turns there were in the route.  My plan calls for no checked baggage, too much dwell time and more infrastructure needed to handle baggage.  People bring luggage on Amtrak trains in the Northeast, so they can do it here.  I accounted for dwell times similar to a commuter train.

There is a saying that more roads leads to more traffic.  You can't keep widening the roads because if you do, more people would drive there who avoided it in the past.  That's what all the current plans would lead to.

Coach Z wrote

This has already been done...in Switzerland.

Zurich Airport has a train station and you can be at just about every ski area in the country within 2 hours by train.  In many areas there are off piste runs that end at train lines to take you back to town and the lifts.

In Europe, the rail lines probably predated the ski areas.

I'm all for it. The I-70 corridor should go full Euro imo. Heck, I'm all for connecting as many of the ski areas too. Loveland/A-Basin/Keystone, Breck/Copper, Beaver Creek/Minturn/Vail could all be connected by lifts and rail. It would be really cool if it actually made renting cars for vacationers obsolete.

It would probably be a lot more green that all of the car traffic in that area. It would be especially fun to tell that to the enviro Sierra Clubber freaks.

The Wasatch needs to go that way too.

Another issue with car travel in that area is that many people have poor winter driving skills or aren't in a car suited to the conditions.  It happened to my family when we went to Steamboat.  Our connecting flight from Denver to Steamboat was cancelled and there was no availability anytime soon because they overbooked everything.  We had to drive it or not go at all.  The only thing the rental company had was a southern Jeep Cherokee (2wd and summer tires), and let's just say that it was interesting going over the Rabbit Ears Pass.  I imagine we weren't alone in not being in the right car, and its not in their control because that's sometimes all the rental companies have.  Steamboat isn't part of my proposed train system, but if traffic were reduced, road conditions would be safer for everyone.  

To answer ADK Jeff's question, some of the line is located adjacent to existing roads, and some of the line follows its own completely new route.  There would need to be some tunnels and trestle bridges to keep the line level.

raisingarizona wrote

It would probably be a lot more green that all of the car traffic in that area. It would be especially fun to tell that to the enviro Sierra Clubber freaks.

People like MikeK?

It is hard to separate the American from their automobile but in colorado people are so fed up with the I-70 nightmare that if it were done right they might be able to pull it off.

For the vacationer I think it would make sense to get off the plane and walk right onto a train. As Sno mentioned a lot of them shouldn't be driving up I-70 in the snow anyways.

What if the main lines going from the front range and up to the mountains were like those Japanese Bullit trains? Don't those things go like 200+ mph or something? Make the trip a 45 minute ride where you didn't have to drive with wifi and I bet a lot of folks would use it. The other thing would be having shorter lines/links in between all of the towns/resorts.

I'm serious about connecting the ski resorts to make three massive ski areas and all three connected by rail. It would be rad. I would want to go on vacation there. I'm excited about the Utah possibility.

If the line were straight enough to allow trains to run 200+ mph, it would have to be almost entirely underground.  Definitely too expensive to be possible.  The lines I routed have an average speed between 70 and 80 mph.  There would be some faster spots where trains could go 100+, but there would also be some slow spots where trains could go no more than 30-40mph That's about commuter rail speed.

The station at Denver Airport according to my plan would be an 8 track terminal connected to the airport via an underground walkway.  You would be able to get off the plane, pick up your luggage and head to the train from there.  The train station would also have a bag drop for people arriving at the airport so they could check their bags as soon as they left the train.  

I'm not sure whether the line would have to be electrified or not.  If it were electrified, it would need to be 3rd rail and not overhead wires because rime ice would wreak havoc on overhead wires.  It would definitely be expensive to electrify it, but that would mean that there would be zero emissions from the whole thing (fewer environmental issues), and would eliminate the problems associated with starting diesel locomotives in cold subzero weather.  When I visited Jackson, Wyoming 2 summers ago, I happened to come across an article about how they were building an indoor bus depot because on cold nights they'd have to idle buses all night or they might not start the next morning.  The same thing would need to be done with diesel railroad equipment.

A train to just hit the ski resorts is borderline insane.  You might as well just invest in a cannon that fires people to the mountains in capsules with parachutes on them.  If they actually cared about travel time from the mountains to the airport they would have built that airport closer to the foothills and not in the middle of nowhere.  You also have to remember that I70 handles a lot more then just skier traffic.  It, along with I-80, are the main arteries across the US.  I-70 is jammed up EVERYWHERE.  Middle of Kansas, nothing for 50 miles in every direction, and your bumper to bumper.  The trucks is what is really slowing you down getting out there.  Build rail to move trucks off the road and you might have something.  Otherwise, your better investment would be heli trips that leave from the airport and drop you on the peak of your choice....

Coach Z wrote

In many areas there are off piste runs that end at train lines to take you back to town and the lifts.

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/Rigi-CH-03-10-16-td4074750.html

I'm still curious how your proposed line gets across the Continental Divide.  Actually it looks like you cross the divide 3 times: once from east to west on your "local" line getting to Winter Park, then again on that line from W to E to get back to Loveland.  The "express" line crosses the divide on its way to Keystone.  Moffat tunnel is 6.2 miles long at 9200 feet elevation.  The Eisenhower tunnel is 1.7 miles long at 11 thousand feet elevation.

Also, travel time on the old Winter Park ski train was 2 hours + from Union Station to WP.  How is it you're able to cut that travel time to 36 minutes?

Footer wrote

 You might as well just invest in a cannon that fires people to the mountains in capsules with parachutes on them.  

I like that idea - has some real potential. You could have your luggage shot from the airport to the condo, you could clip into your skis at the airport and they could shoot you right to the top of your favorite run.

I sure hope Sno learns something at Clarkson - 'cause it isn't happening here.

Adk Jeff wrote

Also, travel time on the old Winter Park ski train was 2 hours + from Union Station to WP.  How is it you're able to cut that travel time to 36 minutes?

It's a high speed bubble train with heated seats

I am making some changes to my map, reflecting issues with the cost of crossing the Continental Divide.  I am going to sever the connection between Winter Park and Loveland, eliminating the need for a tunnel under the Berthoud Pass.  The former local branch will now be the Winter Park branch and serve only Eldora and Winter Park.  It would be a new and improved version of the Winter Park ski train that would run in half the time and serve Eldora as well.

The former express branch will run along the I70 corridor for most of it's route and be the main route for trains, the Echo Mountain Park stop would not be included.  At Loveland, it will tunnel under the Continental Divide coming out at A Basin and then descend to Keystone.  The lines west of Frisco would not be changed.  

Footer wrote

A train to just hit the ski resorts is borderline insane.  You might as well just invest in a cannon that fires people to the mountains in capsules with parachutes on them.

Now we're cooking with propane.

Sno,

You need a job.  Or a significant other.  Or both.  Surely there is someone out there who would pay you money to obsess over something like this.  Its a good quality to have, go find somewhere to apply it.  Don't spend your summer break inside working on pie in the sky plans to take over the world.