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Amid media ‘frenzy’, I-70 truck by train backer touts plan at Denver rail show
ROLA’s truck by train rail solution in Austria in 2019 (photo courtesy of ROLA blog).
Retired Amtrak conductor Brad Swartzwelter has achieved minor celebrity since a story on his truck by train rail bridge idea to get semis off Interstate 70 ran in the Gazette on March 15, with television appearances on the local FOX, ABC and CBS affiliates in Denver and a radio interview on KUNC in northern Colorado.
“Frenzy. That seems to be the reaction of everybody I meet nowadays. They want to talk about getting trucks off I-70,” Swartzwelter said by text Thursday. “They are not just interested; they are enthusiastically passionate.”
In fact, Swartzwelter – credited with helping to revive the increasingly popular Winter Park Express Ski Train – got a chance to talk up I-70 truck train idea for hours over the weekend as he manned the Western Rail Coalition booth at the Rocky Mountain Train Show in Denver. The WRC-affiliated Greater Denver Transit advocacy group also manned a booth surveying the appetite for the proposed Front Range Passenger Rail plan from Fort Collins to Pueblo.
“Everybody seems to be begging me to find a way to make [the I-70 truck train] actually happen. I have yet to meet a person who has told me that the price tag is too high, the benefits are too weak, or the concept is insignificant,” Swartzwelter said, referring to the billion-dollar price tag for rail upgrades and the building of two specialized terminals on Union Pacific’s Moffat Line to load entire semi-trucks and their trailers onto flatbed railroad cars for transit through the Colorado mountains.
Swartzwelter anticipates removing up to 1,100 semis from the treacherous stretch of I-70 between Denver and Grand Junction that includes two 10,000-foot mountain passes, with truck drivers able to sleep during the 9-hour train ride in order to get federally mandated rest. Vail officials recently imposed steep new fines for unchained truckers who close down I-70.
Omaha-based Class 1 railroad company Union Pacific, which owns the line that travels through the state-owned Moffat Tunnel and then follows the Colorado River to Utah, threw a little bit of cold water on Swartzwelter’s idea, but was not at all a hard “no” on the concept.
“Union Pacific already offers a very robust shipping solution called intermodal that leverages the flexibility of trucks to handle the first and last miles of shipping while taking advantage of the many economic and environmental benefits of rail for the long haul,” Union Pacific senior manager of communications Mike Jaixen wrote in an email.
“Our intermodal network includes terminals in both Denver and Salt Lake City and provides connections not only throughout the entire United States but also Canada and Mexico,” Jaixen added. “As for the concept of transporting truck drivers along with their trucks, Union Pacific’s agreement with Amtrak does not allow us to transport passengers.”
The federal passenger rail company Amtrak pays Union Pacific to use the Moffat line for both its long-distance California Zephyr between Chicago and California’s Bay Area and the seasonal Winter Park Express ski train from Denver’s Union Station to the city-owned ski area.
With growing anger from Colorado mountain towns over the frequent closures on I-70 due to jackknifed semis and other crashed vehicles, especially during the winter months, the issue has been top of mind for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) officials lately.
Asked to comment on the truck by train rail bridge idea, a CDOT spokesperson offered an email statement: “Shippers can choose to ship by truck or rail, and these choices are a matter for the private sector, but we are always happy to hear about innovative options and new ways to move products to save people money and better protect our environment.”
The state’s own analysis claims that every hour I-70 is shut down costs an estimated $2 million in economic activity. In 2024, there were 99 full closures totaling 161 hours and costing communities and the state more than $300 million.
A spokesperson for the trucking lobby Colorado Motor Carriers Association did not return an email requesting comment on the rail bridge idea. A new study by the personal injury law firm J&Y Law ranks Colorado as the 10th most dangerous state for delivery truck drivers in the spring months, with more than 77 fatal crashes per 100,000 truck drivers.
Glenwood Springs City Council member Jonathan Godes, who takes over next week as the executive director of the I-70 Coalition, was quoted in the original Gazette story on the truck by train rail bridge and said he’s received a lot of positive public input on the idea since then.
“I have gotten quite a bit of positive feedback,” Godes wrote in an email. “It is such an innovative idea that does more than just move the needle; it could be a game changer.”
Adding that the I-70 Coalition in the past has been supportive of increased fines for truckers who ignore the state’s chain law, Godes said he hopes to get a rail bridge presentation to the group’s membership in the future.
Vail Resorts, the Broomfield-based ski company with several resorts reliant on the I-70 corridor, declined to comment on the truck by train rail bridge or increased fines for truckers, instead referring to a past statement the company provided on the push for mountain passenger rail:
“As demonstrated by our support of the Eagle Valley Regional Transit Authority, Vail Resorts is supportive of solutions that make it safe and easy for people to access work and the outdoors,” a Vail spokesperson said in 2023. The EVRTA has since changed its name to CORE Transit.
Swartzwelter said he’ll continue to advocate for the idea that’s based on a successful model in Austria called ROLA.
“The good news is a tentative plan to have a meeting with members of the Colorado state legislature is planned for this June,” Swartzwelter said. “If that goes well, we will hopefully do a formal study of the idea in the near future. If all goes perfectly, Interstate 70 could be relieved of over 1,000 trucks a day by the winter of 2028-29.”
Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared in the Denver and Colorado Springs Gazette newspapers.
David O. Williams
