DENVER – A former, long-time Amtrak train conductor in Colorado is proposing an idea to alleviate traffic on Interstate 70: Put the semi trucks on trains.
Brad Swartzwelter, who was instrumental in crafting the plan for the Winter Park Express train in 2017, has a big idea of bringing a "truck-by-train" rail-bridge to Colorado to help reduce traffic on the interstate.
The idea? Moving semi-trucks and other large commercial vehicles off the highway and putting them on rail lines instead.
Swartzwelter and his family, like many Coloradans, enjoy going into the mountains, but are fed up with the traffic they have to deal with when traveling there.
“I-70 is the biggest problem with that entire endeavor for everybody in the state,” he said. “Congestion and the danger of accidents, and then sometimes the highway itself is just closed.”
He said his idea is based on a successful European model.
“Semi-truck drivers would drive their entire truck — the cab, the trailer, the whole rig — right onto a flatbed train," he explained. "That train would then traverse the mountains, and then the driver would be in a sleeping car up at the front of the train. At the end of the trip, the driver would get out fully rested, climb back into his truck or her truck, and continue on."
Swartzwelter said the roll-on, roll-off bridge would remove around 1,100 commercial trucks a day from I-70.
All you have to do is look at Austria as the model, Swartzwelter said.
The Austrian Federal Railway uses a “truck-by-train” model over the Austrian Alps – a corridor that used to be jammed with truck traffic from Germany to Italy.
Colorado's "Truck Train" would operate on the existing Amtrak Rail corridor between Denver and Grand Junction and transport trucks over the mountains, Swartzwelter said. Sixteen trains could operate per day — eight in each direction — carrying up to 70 trucks. The route would take about nine hours.
“By making an opportunity for those truckers to be able to get on a train, get rest and absolutely, in total safety, traverse the Rockies without impacting congestion on I-70 at all, to me, is irresistible,” he said.
Building the infrastructure for such a project comes with a massive price tag. Swartzwelter's research estimates the total cost will land just under $1 billion.
“To build the terminals, buy the trains, train the crews, and upgrade the tracks and the highway at the interchange points — that is a substantial amount of money," he said. "And it would have to be backed up by the taxpayers of the state of Colorado through a bond, the way I’m looking at it."
The biggest expense would be the $300 million to build the two truck and train terminals. One would be located east of Denver and the other west of Grand Junction.
However, Swartzwelter predicts the system would be self-sustaining within two years. He adds that the economy loses millions of dollars in tourist money every time the interstate has to close.
In a recent letter to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Town of Vail Mayor Travis Coggin also expressed concerns regarding continued issues with prolonged closures of Interstate 70 both within and at the east and west entries.
You can read that full letter below.
Mayor Coggin pointed out an analysis from the state that estimates around $2 million in economic losses for every hour that I-70 is fully shut down by a crash.
The letter states there were 99 full closures in 2024, lasting 161 hours, which resulted in an economic impact exceeding $300 million.
“Of all of the things that we could say yes to, what would have a bigger impact on our daily lives than decreasing the amount of cost and congestion and danger on the highway that we use more than any other in the state?” Swartzwelter said.
If this plan is given the green light, he said it would take about two years to complete.
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