By: Abigail Hill, Ewan Ward, Molly Luikart, Skyler Siegfried (Staff Writer & Guest Contributors)
The class of ‘32 at Colorado College could potentially be able to catch a train from Colorado Springs for activities like a weekend party in Boulder, a concert in Denver or to the airport for holiday breaks.
Currently, they’d have to drive, get a ride or take a bus.
But on Election Day, Colorado voters appeared poised to support raising taxes to create a Front Range passenger rail line named the Colorado Connector, or, for short, CoCo. The train would travel from Fort Collins to Pueblo, and by 2032, CoCo’s “full corridor service” could run through Colorado Springs.
“I didn’t have a car freshman year, so more transportation to Denver and the ski mountains would be good,” said Keller Mahoney ‘28.
Public transportation from Denver International Airport to the Springs currently means two buses and one train for a roughly three-hour commute costing around $30. Uber lists its price from DIA to Colorado Springs as $144, and Groome Transportation’s student price is currently listed as $53.
“I’m not native to Colorado, and so I would be really interested in just taking a trip, like going all over, exploring everything, and especially to the airport,” Tom Perl Olshvang ‘30 said. “That saves…so much time.”
Phase One of the delivery plan for CoCo is projected to be ready in 2029.
The starter service will include three daily round trips from Denver to Fort Collins, with eight station stops in between. Trains will travel at speeds up to 79 miles per hour. Amtrak is the planned operator of the service for this first phase.
The Front Range Passenger Rail District Board (FRPR) plans to expand CoCo to reach Colorado Springs and Pueblo by 2032.
The funding for this second phase will come from a sales and use tax that, as of Wednesday, Colorado voters appeared eager to approve. It will cost around $2.7 billion. Ballot measure 7A, which voters seemed poised to approve, is estimated to raise $295 million per year, with collections beginning in July 2027. The FRPR district board states that this tax revenue will be the primary source of funding for sustaining the train service going forward.
A Colorado Springs station would be built just south of America the Beautiful Park and the Olympic and Paralympic Museum. This would be a seven-minute drive from campus and a nine-minute free Zeb ride.
Out-of-state students Maxo Parker ‘30 and Olshvang agreed that while a lack of having their own cars on campus makes them feel more connected to the Springs, it also makes it hard to explore the state of Colorado.
“I also feel like Colorado is a place where every city is so different from the next,” said Phoebe Evans ‘29. “You’ll drive an hour, and it’ll just be completely different,” Evans added that if people were able to explore more places it would make for a richer experience.
Colorado schools could become more connected too.
Cassidy Niess ‘29 said travel to Boulder would be nice for more weekend trips if there was a train, especially if it ran later into the night.
However, some Colorado Springs residents have reservations about the CoCo.
At Mother Muffs bar in Old Colorado City this week, Ray, a 77-year-old resident of the Mill Street neighborhood, said he believes the train is a good idea but has some personal reservations about the build.
“I think it’s a good idea, but they want to take down two bridges in the area, which means destroying eighteen homes,” he said. “If the rail is going to destroy our homes, then I’m not for it.”
As part of a project to improve the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line (the one that the CoCo would use), the Colorado Springs Public Utilities Commission proposed a project in 2020 to straighten a meandering right-of-way running through the Mill Street neighborhood, which would require the destruction of multiple homes and businesses.
The Public Utilities Commission issued a statement in May 2026 confirming for now “the railroad track’s horizontal and vertical location will not change,” but “the [project] is expected to continue because constructing a new bridge in its existing location does not satisfy the project’s Purpose and Need in its entirety”. The Public Utilities Commission could not be reached for a comment about whether the CoCo project would mean the displacement of any homes by press time.
At least one CC student said they thought the college’s admissions office could use a potential new train line as a “selling point” to attract future students.
Senior Assistant Director of Admissions Hillary Dickman said she is looking forward to the potential of the train line, but is waiting to see how accessible it will actually be for quick transport to Denver.
“Having the option to hop on a train and go have an adventure in Denver or Boulder does open up some possibilities for students that might be more exciting than staying here or, like, getting on a bus,” she said.
“So I think it could help us. I don’t think it’s going to be like a game changer in marketing, but I would love to be proven wrong. And the faster that they can make that train go, the more likely it is to be something that’s going to be useful.”