Chaffee County commissioners voted recently to submit a formal comment to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) asking the agency to consider a Tennessee Pass rail‑to‑trail conversion as part of its public‑interest review of the proposed $85 billion Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger. The formal comment supports the idea of converting or adapting the largely inactive corridor for public trail use.
If the merger is approved it would create the first single-line railroad linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States. According to a Chaffee County Times Facebook post, the commissioners formal comment links county support for the merger before actions that could foreclose “future trail use, railbanking and public access.” It asks the railroad to revisit the Heart of the Rockies Rail-to-Trail project.
The request does not approve a trail, change ownership of the corridor or require the railroad to participate. It asks regulators to consider the trail concept as part of their determination of whether the merger serves the public interest.
Additionally, the commissioners also endorsed a federal grant application to study a connector trail between Poncha Springs and recreation routes near Monarch Pass. The suggested route calls for a trail of about five miles linking Poncha Springs and its planned transit center with the Rainbow Trail, CR 120 and routes leading toward Marshall Pass, O’Haver Lake and the Monarch Crest Trail.
