Front Range rail plan takes Colorado taxpayers for a ride

Colorado wants taxpayers to spend another $4.73 billion on passenger rail.

Don’t worry. They have a plan.

Which is a little like your brother-in-law announcing he’s launching another exciting restaurant venture after his last three restaurants ended in bankruptcy.

Please. Tell me where to send the check.

The money trainThis week the Front Range Passenger Rail District released its “plan” for their choo-choo, laughingly branded “CoCo,” a desire named streetcar stretching from Fort Collins to Pueblo.

According to Independence Institute transportation analyst Randall O’Toole, the project will cost at least $4.73 billion. At least.

If that number sounds familiar, it should. It’s nearly a billion dollars more than Denver’s Regional Transportation District promised FasTracks would cost.

As the former chairman of RTD, I’ve seen firsthand how these numbers are invented for political marketing. Keep the estimate low enough to win the tax increase. Worry about reality later.

We were promised FasTracks would relieve congestion, transform transportation, and be completed by 2017 for $3.8 billion.

Instead, taxpayers have already spent about $5.5 billion. RTD says it still needs another $1.6 billion to finish what it promised. Congestion is worse. Ridership is down. And Longmont is still waiting for its train.

Passenger rail is Colorado’s abusive boyfriend. It lies. It takes your money. It promises it’ll change this time. And somehow, we keep taking it back.

So here we are again.