CDOT has asked Amtrak to clarify whether five western states including Colorado would be asked to subsidize $33.1 million in annual operating losses to reinstate daily Pioneer train service between Denver and Seattle.

The state’s modal programs manager at CDOT, Tom Mauser, also questioned the estimated $470 million in capital upgrades that Union Pacific Railroad gave to Amtrak for a draft study on the reinstatement, noting that Amtrak had run Pioneer service over the same Wyoming Overland route as recently as 12 years ago.

“Given that the Pioneer operated over the Overland route just 12 years ago, the high capital costs in Option 2 ($470 million) seem to go beyond what is required to restore the same service,” Mauser wrote in comments submitted to Amtrak.

Those costs include an estimated $38 million to be spent on track upgrades in Colorado. But of that, $15 million is on tracks not along the Pioneer route.

Map outlines the estimated $38 million in costs to upgrade tracks that would allow reinstatement of the Amtrak Pioneer train service between Denver and Seattle.

That’s cheaper, Union Pacific estimated, than adding capacity to the Greeley Subdivision, which it estimated would take up to $155 million.

“The alternative of providing sufficient capacity on the Greeley subdivision would require three additional sidings and closing or grade separating eight different roads in order to make the existing sidings fully useable,” the Amtrak report reads. “These Greeley subdivision improvements would require $35 million in direct infrastructure investment for sidings and CTC signalization and roughly $80 to $120 million of indirect investment to close and/or grade separate road crossings. In comparison, the Julesburg investment of $38 million would enable the proposed Pioneer service.”

The conclusion is in a draft report to Congress, which mandated the study last year in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. Prime movers of the study were lawmakers from Idaho and Oregon, where the Pioneer operated between Denver and Portland on a corridor that since 1993 has been without passenger rail service.

“Restoration of the Pioneer would enhance Amtrak’s route network and produce public benefits, but would require significant expenditures for initial capital costs and ongoing operating costs not covered by farebox revenues,” the report reads.

Mauser also noted that communities along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway alignment from Denver to Wyoming through Boulder, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins are interested in the Pioneer using that alignment.

“CDOT recognizes that Amtrak did not have Congressional authority to study any routes beyond the two routes previously used by the Pioneer, and we appreciate that the study mentions this alternative and indicates that this specific Colorado routing could be studied later if needed,” Mauser wrote. “We believe this route could offer a large population base from which to draw riders and should be considered if future studies are conducted.”

The Pioneer ran on the Overland Route across Wyoming from Ogden, Utah, between 1991 and 1997, when it was discontinued. Before that, the California Zephyr used the Wyoming route until 1983, when it was changed to the more scenic Denver and Rio Grande Western route through the Colorado Rockies.