Daily file photo
The proposed new operator of the Tennessee Pass rail line has no intention of hauling oil through Eagle County.
That unequivocal statement to the Eagle County Commissioners came Monday from Sarah Thompson Cassidy, the community liaison for the Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway. That firm is a subsidiary of the Rio Grande Pacific Corporation, which operates lines in seven states.
Colorado, Midland in late December announced it had reached a lease agreement for the line with the owner, the Union Pacific Railroad. Union Pacific also operates the line between Denver and Dotsero via the Moffat Tunnel. Union Pacific stopped using the Tennessee Pass line in the mid-1990s, and much of the line has fallen into disrepair in the quarter-century since.
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Feds delay decision on Colorado Midland bid to revive Tennessee Pass Line January 30, 2021, 2:38 pm
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Friday issued a continuance in the closely watched case of Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway’s bid for an exemption that would seal a lease deal with Union Pacific for passenger and freight service on the Tennessee Pass Line.
The deal would have gone into effect Friday without the continuance.
The STB’s decision delays the process at least several more weeks and provides additional time for Eagle County and Avon – and several other groups opposed to the deal to provide more input on a plan that would have allowed for the resumption of rail service on 163 miles of Union Pacific’s tracks that haven’t seen trains since 1997.
Posted by Tara Flanagan | Jan 29, 2021
Eagle County got the attention of the Surface Transportation Board this week, prompting the agency to make a 15-day extension on the comment period for a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on the proposed Uinta Basin Railway in northeastern Utah. Comments are now due Feb. 12.
The Unita Basin Railway is a proposed link to the oil shale reserves of northeastern Utah.
Chaffee County has joined efforts to comment with with Eagle County and the Town of Avon, bringing attention to the Tennessee Pass Line and how it could in the future fit into plans to deliver oil shale out of the Uinta Basin and onward to the larger rail network.