All aboard? Not just yet.

But the dream is still alive for those of us hoping to one day board a train in downtown Colorado Springs, maybe with a backpack full of books and papers, and eventually arrive in Denver or points beyond after a relaxing ride reading on the rails.

That’s because the Front Range Passenger Rail District recently said trains could be running between Denver and Fort Collins by 2029. Service to Colorado Springs would soon follow.

The first passenger train arrived in Colorado Springs on October 27, 1871. The last one left over a half-century ago. You can surmise the many reasons behind the train’s demise, not just along the Front Range, but nearly everywhere else.

From the explosion of faster jet travel to the expansion of better highways and our love for the independence and sense of control we get in our cars, trains lost popularity.

The train’s golden age spanned the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Just over 100 years ago, 254,000 miles of track transported over 1.2 billion passengers each year in the United States. Last year, Amtrak reported carrying 32.8 million passengers, which was actually a 15% increase from 2023.

Amtrak’s NextGen Acela train on the east coast debuted last week to rave reviews. It can go up to 160 miles per hour and carry 80 more passengers. The Northeast Corridor accounts for over half of Amtrak’s business.

The ubiquity of train travel years ago is difficult for modern generations to fathom, but those of a certain age recall its dominance. There was also a romance to it. My father talked of wishing he was on the Denver & Rio Grande Western train that chugged past Camp Hale on cold nights during his time with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. My mom choked up remembering waiting for him in New York City’s Grand Central Station when he was discharged.

The Monkees sang about taking a train to Clarksville in 1966. By 1969, John Denver was singing about “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” To be sure, trains didn’t go down without a fight. In 1958, the Rio Grande Railroad’s Prospector train between Denver and Salt Lake City was beginning to battle for its survival. Its route through the Moffat Tunnel took 15 hours. At the time, it was two hours on a United or Western Airlines DC-6B plane with a round-trip fare of $41.80 or the equivalent of $464.52 today.

The Rio Grande chose to appeal to the vacationer and business traveler by framing the Prospector as a more civilized and luxurious mode of transportation. The train would leave Denver’s Union Station at 5:30 p.m. and arrive in Salt Lake at 8:30 a.m. the next day. The special round-trip fare included a lower berth, plus two dinners and two breakfasts. Dinner was chicken noodle soup, choice of steak, roast beef or mountain trout, French fried or lyonnaise potatoes, green beans or beets, and choice of apple pie, berry short cake, melon, ice cream, wafers, and cheese and crackers, plus coffee, tea or milk. Breakfast was bacon-and-eggs, ham-and-eggs and hot cakes. The cost? $61.52 or $687.97 today.

The Prospector went bust in 1967.

It’d be easy to say we’re digressing, especially when it comes to transportation. Colorado Springs owes its founding to rail service that no longer exists. But life is layered and complex. Traveling by car, air or even train has never been safer, and that’s a wonderful thing. We tend to not give thanks when bad things don’t happen; we only gripe and grieve when they do.

It remains an open question whether the public will support the return of passenger rail service. Would voters approve a tax increase to help subsidize it? Denver’s train has had mixed results. Could private industry pull it off? If so, why haven’t they tried yet?

Trains have long symbolized life’s journeys. They’ve also served to unite the coasts of our country as well as connect distant communities. I like how the late English writer E.M. Forster once put it, that train stations “are our gates to the glorious and unknown. Through them we pass into adventure and sunshine.”

I’m rooting for passenger rail service here in Colorado Springs, but only if it can be done in a fiscally responsible manner that won’t jump the tracks, and in more ways than one.

Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.