The idea of a rail line serving the series of cities on Colorado’s Front Range has been around for years, but lately it has finally gotten traction. It’s about time: Colorado only continues to grow, and there are now close to 5 million people at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in a relatively narrow corridor less than 180 miles long. Everything from high-speed rail to Hyperloop has been considered, although conventional, low-speed diesel rail (like that in neighboring Utah and New Mexico) operated by Amtrak is now moving forward. (There’s also a proposal to connect Amtrak’s Southwest Chief to the corridor’s south end.) This plan would also finally enable passenger rail on the freight tracks between Denver and Boulder, the last great missing piece of Denver’s FasTracks plan, although to truly complete the plan, overlay local service with interim stops would be required.

NOTES ON DESIGN

This strip map is based on the Front Range Passenger Rail brand, and includes symbols with a connection to Colorado and the Front Range, namely diamonds and mountains on the western horizon (including the three most prominent peaks visible from the Front Range, Pikes Peak, Mount Blue Sky, and Longs Peak). The typeface is Montserrat.

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