I-70 monorail in voters' hands

I-70 monorail in voters' hands

October 11, 2001

By Janelle Holden
journal staff writer

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot," sang Joni Mitchell — and that’s exactly what supporters of a Colorado monorail system along Interstate 70 want to prevent in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

Fixing I-70’s traffic congestion is the idea behind Amendment 26, a citizen initiative that would channel $50 million of the $927 million state tax surpluses to test and plan for a monorail system along the mountainous I-70 corridor from Denver International Airport to Vail. The amendment is one of two statewide ballot questions to be decided Nov. 6.

"This has been painted as a project that is designed to help people on the Front Range get to the mountains, but the real origin of this whole movement was in the mountain counties," explained Miller Hudson, executive director of the Colorado Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority, backers of the measure.

The guideway authority’s board was appointed by the state Legislature in 1998 to analyze fixed-guideway technologies. The board formed on the heels of a Colorado Department of Transportation study that recommended a "fixed-guideway system" as a long-term solution to the interstate’s traffic congestion.

Hudson says that if the train is built, it could eventually connect all of the Western Slope communities, including Cortez.

"We think there’s a market for this statewide, that it’s not just simply a ski train," said Hudson, adding that the private sector won’t build transportation like this because the risks are too great.

If voters approve the amendment, it will jump-start three years of testing the proposed train at the U.S. Transportation Department’s technology test center in Pueblo. The guideway authority is proposing a "first of its kind" train, which could eventually be patented and sold to link other metropolitan areas across the country.

The proposed high-speed train would run with a linear induction motor developed at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque along an elevated track, relying on magnetic propulsion and braking.

Hudson said they plan to drop the testing if it proves that the monorail would cost more than $25 million per mile to construct, or if the technology fails.

Backers estimate the system would cost $4 billion to install, with 15 planned stops along the way. In comparison, it would cost $3.5 billion to widen I-70 to six lanes.

All of this is a pipe dream, argues the Independence Institute, a think-tank based in Golden.

"There’s no train in the world that goes 150 miles an hour over mountain tops that would cost $10 to $25 million a mile," said Jon Caldara, the institute’s president. Caldara says the technology for the train "simply does not exist," and going ahead with its testing is simply "a consultants’ welfare program."

Caldara acknowledges that congestion is a problem along the corridor, but instead of a monorail he would like the road improved, and tolls implemented during peak hours.

"I would rather see a more realistic solution to the problem instead of fantasy," Caldara said.

The institute is both lobbying against the measure and pushing to throw it off the ballot. This week the group filed a legal challenge to the amendment, saying proponents did not gather enough valid signatures for the measure to be on the ballot.

The secretary of state, Donetta Davidson, credited the group with 80,604 valid signatures last month, just 33 over the number needed to get it on the ballot.

"We had several, 30, volunteers spend some time looking at the signatures and we found errors that might disqualify all of them, or thousands of them," explained Caldara.

Hudson said the guideway authority views the lawsuit as more of a nuisance than a threat. No ruling is expected before the ballots are mailedt.

A greater threat to the measure may be the possibility that voters, shaken by a downturned economy and a war on terrorism, may vote no simply because of the timing.

Whatever voters decide, I-70’s problems will not disappear, Hudson warned.

"In 2050, this state will have 10 million to 20 million people. We’re not all going to be able to drive up I-70 to get to the mountains, we’re going to have to have some alternatives," he said.