November 13, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

Fort Worth-based Rio Grande Pacific Corporation (RGPC) may be interested in providing passenger rail service in a Colorado corridor, following its withdrawl from a Utah freight rail project. 

Rio Grande Pacific still holds a lease agreement with Union Pacific Railroad, since 2019, on what is known as the Tennessee Pass rail line through Eagle County in the rocky mountain state. Rio Grande still has a desire to establish a passenger rail service in the Tennessee Pass corridor, according to an article published on realvail.com.

In a statement, RGPC said they are "interested in coordinating with communities along the Tennessee Pass rail line to determine whether there is interest in developing commuter/passenger rail. Additionally, RGPC is open to the potential of other local, non-hazmat freight that originates or terminates within the corridor between Eagle County Airport and Parkdale in Fremont County. We believe the existing rail line could play a role in state and local passenger rail goals, as well as broader community and economic development plans, workforce housing access and commuter needs, climate action goals, and more within this transportation corridor that links world class recreation and resorts, higher education institutions, airports and communities.”

The Tennessee Pass line, which runs along the Eagle and Arkansas rivers, has been out of service since 1997. 

In October a regional organization, the Western Rail Coalition was formed, and, according to realvail.com an RGPC spokesperson confirmed its interest in reviving the original passenger-rail lease if there is enough local support. 

RGPC formed a company called Colorado Midland Pacific to pursue the Tennessee Pass Line lease deal with UP, which has a long history with RGPC. Its first short line railroad was acquired from UP in 1990. The Tennessee Pass Line (TPL) will require extensive refurbishing if it is to be revived. It has been dormant, or out of service and never officially abandoned, since the merger of UP and former TPL-owner Southern Pacific in 1996.

RGPC is a privately held, Fort Worth, Texas-based holding company for regional freight railroads. Through various subsidiaries, provides signal construction and design, passenger operations, equipment remanufacturing and dispatching services, to short line railroads and transit agencies across the United States.

CORRECTION: It was reported earlier that RGPC was going to operate the Unita Basin Railway that would have meant oil trains originating out of Utah being transferred south through Tennessee Pass. TRA received incorrect information on that report and Rio Grande Pacific was not involved in oil trains using Tennessee Pass. 

Photo credit: Western Rail Coalition