Railroad conductor wants to take semi trucks off Colorado’s I-70 mountain corridor by loading them onto trains

A retired railroad conductor is making headlines for his proposal to use trains to reduce commercial vehicle crashes and congestion along the I-70 mountain corridor in Colorado.

The I-70 mountain corridor presents a number of risks for truckers — severe winter weather conditions, steep grades, brake failure risk, and hazards like rockfalls, fires, and floods. I-70 in Colorado is frequently closed for crashes, many of them involving commercial vehicles.

Retired Amtrak conductor Brad Swartzwelter, 60, thinks he has a solution. Swartzwelter has spoken to Colorado media outlets trying to drum up support for a “rail bridge” that would use an existing Union Pacific rail line to carry trucks on a nine hour trip through Colorado, taking loads of commercial vehicles up and over the Rocky Mountains as an alternative to taking I-70.

The “rail bridge” system would involve driving semi trucks onto flatbed rail cars at the onset of the train journey. The truck drivers would then be free to choose to enjoy the trip in a train sleeper car, potentially helping them to maximize their allowable driving time.

Swartzwelter says that the concept is already in use in European countries, with a system in Austria acting as “the model for this whole thing.”

“I-70 is our biggest problem in this state. The congestion is unbearable. All we need is one trucker making a mistake to cause one of the 99 shutdowns that pummels us and takes away millions of dollars, especially from places like Vail. Removing the trucks from I-70 and putting them in a different corridor would relieve well over 70% of the problem,” Swartzwelter told the Denver Gazette.

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