Rail plan is realistic; alternative to cars (Gazette)

Issue 7A gives us another way to go. It funds the Colorado Connector, a passenger train from Pueblo to Fort Collins with two Colorado Springs stops, one downtown and one on the north side. The trip takes the same time in July heat or a January storm.

Train service between Denver and Fort Collins is moving forward either way. Issue 7A is what brings it south, with service to the Springs within five years. If we reject it, northern Colorado gets its train while we wait our turn, again.

The plan is realistic. It runs on existing tracks with the railroads and Amtrak on board, which keeps costs down.

7A is a one-third-cent sales tax, about 33 cents on every $100 you spend, with an independent audit every year. Colorado Springs gets $6.6 million a year for 25 years to connect local buses and improve the areas around our stations.

Visitors stepping off the train downtown are a short walk from our restaurants, hotels and Weidner Field. That’s why the Downtown Partnership, the Greater Pueblo Chamber and the Colorado Hispanic Chamber endorse 7A.

You benefit even if you never ride. Springs drivers lose about 61 hours a year to congestion, and every train takes a line of cars off I-25.

7A doesn’t take a dollar from road funding. But if it fails, we won’t magically get new lanes. We’ll just get more cars on the same road.

Vote yes on 7A.

Nancy Henjum, Colorado Springs City Council District 5