Colorado has been awarded $66.4 million in grant funding to improve the safety of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) rail line north of Denver.
The state matched the grant with $28 million made available by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The money, totaling over $94 million, is designed to pay for crossing improvements and positive train control to be added along part of the Front Range rail corridor.
Officials said this is a major step in preparing the state for a major passenger rail project, which has an ambitious goal of connecting Fort Collins to Pueblo, a three-hour journey via Interstate 25.
“Today’s grant will make freight rail traffic in some of our busiest growing communities safer quickly while providing critical building blocks for passenger rail,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release. “With more than $66 million in federal support from the Biden-Harris administration, the future of Colorado’s rail network is a clear priority for the federal government, as it should be.”