If all goes to plan, a measure for a sales tax to fund passenger rail service could be coming to Front Range ballots in 2026.

“We have a plan that we think is viable, and we’ll actually be able to get things started,” said John Putnam, chair of the Front Range Passenger Rail District Board.

On Thursday, Putnam and others were in Colorado Springs to answer questions at a packed Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center forum.

Attendees asked about station location, cost, safety, train speed and how passenger trains would share track space with freight trains. If a ballot measure were approved this year, Colorado Springs might have a station in the works before 2031.

The most likely location for the envisioned station is near America the Beautiful Park and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum.

To the south, Pueblo has gone even further in the planning process, creating a Station Action Plan last year to revitalize the area around Pueblo Union Depot. The project, with passenger platforms, a pedestrian bridge and station restoration, is estimated to cost between $31 and $37 million.

A ballot measure would go to the voters in the district’s bounds: over a dozen communities in a north-south corridor that might benefit from one connected passenger rail line. Before that happens, however, rail leaders need to figure out how to deliver an already-promised line running north from Denver.

District manager Sal Pace said the ballot measure was contingent on multiple transportation stakeholders and BNSF Railway reaching an agreement to create a “starter service” in the northern Front Range by 2029.

The service, with a starting budget of nearly $900 million, would be paid through existing tax revenue streams. The line would run three daily round-trip trains on existing freight lines.

If agreements get signed for the starter service, then the plan would be to use money from the proposed Front Range Passenger Rail sales tax to fund extensions south and an expansion of service to 10 trains a day. Part of the ballot measure would be built in “local returns” for communities to budget improvements around train stations.

Under current estimates, Colorado Springs would receive about $80 million to improve transportation, repair streets and develop other necessities around a proposed station near America the Beautiful Park.

The passenger rail system has some unavoidable drawbacks. One is speed. Since laying new track would likely be cost-prohibitive in the foreseeable future, the plan is to reach agreements with BNSF and Union Pacific to use existing tracks. That means passenger trains would need to work around existing traffic, relying on “very careful negotiations,” according to Putnam.

One downtown Colorado Springs resident, Ken Green, said he was concerned about the sharing strategy.

“Are we going to find out in 10 years, oh gee, we’ve got to put in a whole new system?” he said.

District officials said that freight traffic has declined over the past two decades, creating track space capacity that didn’t previously exist. Putnam said the opportunity was for “good level of service but not an infinite level of service.”

The existing tracks are also not built for speed: trains set a relatively lumbering pace of 79 mph around and over the Front Range’s hilly geographical features.

A nonstop trip from downtown Colorado Springs to downtown Denver — with stops in Douglas County and Littleton — would probably take about an hour and 45 minutes, with not much room for improvement. One forum attendee pointed out her usual route to Denver by car takes a fraction of that time.

The district argues traffic is an increasing problem on Interstate 25, which would make a train a more attractive option. A train would also create a better option for people who don’t have regular access to a car.

Another potential concern is cost.

Putnam said the district was still working on what tax rate it wants to bring to voters. In any case, he said, a train system is not going to become self-sustaining. Except for air travel, Putnam said that no type of transportation infrastructure generates enough profit to pay for itself, including highways.

“We subsidize transportation in the United States,” said Putnam.

Train fares are currently planned at about 20 cents a mile, or about a $15 ticket from Colorado Springs to Denver.

While a decision about a ballot measure is still up in the air, the district is also pursuing a change in its borders to adjust to the newest plans for line location.

Some opportunities for input on a “vision process” to name the line may also be coming in the next few months. Passenger rail used to run from Pueblo to Denver under the name Colorado Eagle until the 1960s: Pace said that name was now overused.

Other well-known U.S. passenger routes include the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, the California Zephyr, Sunset Limited and the Brightline.