# Colorado Pacific Tennessee Pass Proposal



## ShiningTimeStL (Nov 2, 2020)

Colorado Pacific says it would offer passenger service as part of new bid for Tennessee Pass line (updated and corrected) | Trains Magazine


Short line's earlier effort was dismissed by Surface Transportation Board, but letters show effort to line up support for second bid



trn.trains.com





Is this just some kind of crazy bluff, or what? When was the last time a private common carrier railroad actually proposed starting up their own passenger service? Gee, Colorado sure seems like the place to be for serious investment in American railroads.


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## Mailliw (Nov 2, 2020)

Well, there's Brightline in Florida & California/Nevada and Texas Central Railway in Texas, but both of those are new companies instead of existing railroads.


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## sttom (Nov 2, 2020)

It would make sense as a tourist line, but as a regularly scheduled service? That sounds like a big if in the middle of nowhere. I would assume its a bluff for something else and a passenger train for a while is probably the thing they want to use as a carrot for regulators.


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## me_little_me (Nov 2, 2020)

Mailliw said:


> Well, there's Brightline in Florida & California/Nevada and Texas Central Railway in Texas, but both of those are new companies instead of existing railroads.


True about TC and Brighline West but Brightline in Florida came from FEC even if it was created by semi-cloning then separating and without FEC agreeing to share the track and the scheduling, they would not be where they are.


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## ShiningTimeStL (Nov 3, 2020)

Should have specified that it's the first freight carrying railroad to propose this in a long time. Didn't realize that Brightline could be considered a passenger-only "common carrier" (?)


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## sttom (Jul 22, 2021)

I know this is way late, but it got rejected for now 









Tennessee Pass Revival on Hold, for Now - Railway Age


The Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway Co. (CMPR), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Grande Pacific Corp. (Rio Grande), will have to wait to revive the Tennessee Pass line, according to a recent decision by the Surface Transportation Board (STB).




www.railwayage.com





Other reporting 








Tennessee Pass Revival: It’s Complicated - Railway Age


Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway Co. (CMP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Grande Pacific Corp. (RGPC), has entered into an agreement to lease the majority (163.1 miles) of the Tennessee Pass rail line between Parkdale and Sage, Colo., from Union Pacific. The short line has also submitted a...




www.railwayage.com


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## jis (Jul 23, 2021)

Since the original Trains article that started this thread has gone 404, I dug around and found a pretty good article that describes what is going on:









Transportation board kills plan for trains to return to Colorado’s dormant Tennessee Pass


The Surface Transportation Board on Thursday rejected a plan by a rail operator to revive train traffic on Colorado’s mountainous Tennessee Pass Line. Colorado Midland & Pacific Railway Company — a new division of Texas-based Rio Grande Pacific Corp. — asked the transportation board on Dec. 31...




coloradosun.com





As for whether Brightline is a "common carrier" or not, apparently it is by normal definition of the term:









common carrier







www.law.cornell.edu


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