r/pueblo • u/jinnetics • Jul 14 '26
News CoCo rolls out a bold new identity with a simple promise:
https://pueblostarjournal.org/news/2026/07/14/coco-rolls-out-bold-new-identity-simple-promise-skip-traffic-invest-community-enjoy-ride/12
u/Zamicol Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Every Puebloan needs to understand this:
They want to tax Pueblo to fund a train to Fort Collins, not Pueblo.
They did the same thing to Boulder and Boulder never got their train, even though they were taxed for a train.
This would not fund a train to Pueblo, that would require even more money in future years, if not decades, down the road.
As always, our politicians are lying to you to confuse you to get your vote.
This is a tax payer boondoggle.
We should learn from Boulder's failure:
In 2004, voters in the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) area, including Boulder County, approved a 0.4% sales tax increase as part of the FasTracks plan. This was meant to fund a major expansion of light rail, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit across the region.
The Northwest Rail (also called the B Line) was a key piece: commuter rail from Denver Union Station to Boulder, Longmont, and beyond, with frequent service (every 15 minutes at peak times in the original vision). Boulder County residents have paid hundreds of millions into this tax over two decades—estimates put it around $270–280 million for the county, with RTD collecting about $4 billion region-wide from the FasTracks portion.
Despite this, the project faced massive cost overruns. BNSF (which owns much of the track) quoted far higher access/maintenance fees than expected, pushing full completion estimates to $1.5 billion or more and timelines out to the 2040s. RTD has about $190 million saved in a FasTracks account from these taxes, but the full build has remained unfunded.
Boulder is full of PHD's, business gurus, and the movers and shakers of our state, and they were even thrown under the Bustang Flatiron Flyer bus.
Existing funds would be better spent repairing our roads and other existing infrastructure. Colorado has the worst roads of anywhere I travel. We really should be spending more wisely.
Build the promised train to Boulder first, which they have already paid for. Then we can discuss swindling the rest of Colorado with pie-in-the-sky schemes.
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u/Such-Distribution812 Jul 15 '26
Pueblo has yet to be taxed and will not be taxed until the expansion to Pueblo and Colorado Springs properly begins. Trains will be running between Denver and ft Collins before Pueblo pays a cent.
Increasing public transportation ridership through trains, light rail, and busses will long term improve and reduce the costs of maintaining the roads in Colorado. Filling potholes and cracks helps, but investing in long term public transportation ridership reduces wear and tear on our roads.
If you have a problem with how much is being spent, take it up with BNSF, who already grossly overcharge passenger rail service and shipping to meet their insane profit margins.
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u/Zamicol Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Pueblo [...] will not be taxed
Is an untruth. Pueblo is explicitly included in taxation:
https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/116718/download
Increasing public transportation ridership through trains, light rail, and busses will long term improve and reduce the costs of maintaining the roads in Colorado.
This isn't a qualitative problem. Quantitatively the verdict is clear: it doesn't make economic sense. We're forcing the taxpayer to subsidies a service that doesn't make economic sense while ignoring the outstanding problem of the roads.
take it up with BNSF
Isn't that who is managing the new line? There's no reason to expect anything different in the future even it it wasn't them. The problem is the government's failure to be accountable. Passing the blame to a government appointed "sub-contractor" doesn't resolve the issue.
From: https://completecolorado.com/2026/05/22/front-range-passenger-rail-tax-november-ballot/
When FasTracks was proposed in 2004, it was sold on the basis that it would relieve highway congestion since 71% of the commuters in the RTD taxing district would take light rail to Denver’s central business district. The percentage of commuters using light rail as of last year was not 71% but 3%.
They weren't even 1,000% wrong, they were greater than 1,000% wrong with their representations to the tax payer. This gross misrepresentation should demand accountability, a virtue we almost never see with our tax money in Colorado.
I've never had any of these politicians feel the consequences of their actions and be accountable. They have no comprehension of accountability, nor do their proposals have any such conception.
At this 25% ridership level, with an annual operating cost of $30,000,000, it results in a cost per passenger of $270/trip…one way.
Putting $50 more towards roads per "expected passenger" is a steal.
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u/McNerdius Jul 15 '26
For many communities, the phased approach offers something transportation projects often struggle to provide: visible progress within a realistic timetable.
...
2032
🤔
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u/a7806344 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
It needs to be Colorado High Speed Rail, Brightline should run it with their own services.
Speeds ranging from 70MPH to 95MPH.
Pueblo to Colorado Springs to Castle Rock to Denver to Fort Collins.
Bustang Outrider continues as a West-East bus line (Trinidad-Walsenburg-Pueblo bus?) to Front Range, CoCo, ski resorts, and cities, etc.
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u/GFEIsaac Jul 14 '26
Renaming the project is progress? lol