Senate passes rail-safety bill creating Office of Rail Safety and new fee structure after extensive floor debate

The Colorado Senate on April 22 adopted Senate Bill 162, establishing funding and expanded authorities for the Office of Rail Safety and directing the Public Utilities Commission to set a fee on railroads based on metrics such as train miles, gross ton miles and public crossings.

Senator Cutter, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the measure follows work by advisory committees created after last year’s creation of the Office of Rail Safety. "The work of the advisory committees and their recommendations is what you see in the bill that we're presenting today," Cutter said on the floor, describing the bill’s data‑collection, notification and inspection elements.

Sponsor Senator Snyder said the fee is modeled on what more than 30 other states use. Snyder told colleagues the fee will be used to hire inspectors, emergency response teams and pay for equipment and communications, and that without the fee Colorado would remain underfunded on rail safety work.

Amendments and negotiations were a…