The state of Colorado is experiencing growth. Rapidly. Our future in the Rocky Mountains has become a crowded place, and it’s no secret why — clear air, fresh water, beautiful country, active communities, a wealth of small businesses, great weed and some of the finest craft beer in the world.

Who wouldn’t want a piece of that?

But the prospect of extensive population growth poses some infrastructural problems for the state.

The Rocky Mountains have always been a complicated obstacle for civil engineers, which is why only a few well-maintained high-traffic arteries bridge the state. The result of this: traffic snakes along the alpine corridors, bottle-necking from the Front Range to the Great Divide. Perpetually. Like a tide ebbing in Friday and Saturday, flowing back out on Sunday.

Sometimes the traffic isn’t too bad — sometimes it’s maddening.

But it is always there. Every weekend.

To CDOT’s credit they do a great job of keeping arteries like I-70 ebbing and flowing through the most heinous construction and the most severe weather year-round. But the more people use roads, the more accidents happen, the more construction is needed and the more traffic builds up. It’s a feedback loop.

Peak season shoulder lanes and interchangeable lanes have been discussed as possible mitigations. This would be a cheap and reasonably effective method for cutting down on traffic, but may only temporarily curb the problem. Eventually the population will outgrow the capacity of Colorado’s traffic wizards to divert it in clever ways.

Another possibility is the implementation of a high-speed rail system — a network that would traverse the state quickly, efficiently. Minimizing vehicle traffic during peak seasons. Effectively reviving the old rail system of Colorado, ushering in a new era — the railway revival.

It would be expensive. California is dropping around $70 billion on their new high-speed railway. And without a doubt, it would take Colorado years to complete, but the effects would be enduring.

A reduction in traffic along primary corridors of travel would reduce the number of accidents. This would clear roads up markedly, allowing for more predictable and less busy routes for transit companies. There would be a surplus of technical jobs, engineering jobs, maintenance jobs and construction jobs generated by reviving Colorado’s railway. Additionally, the state itself would make revenue through cutbacks in road maintenance and railway passenger fares.

Environmentally this would be enormous — fewer cars on the road would yield fewer emissions, less magnesium chloride and less roadside garbage. High-speed rails can also run electrically, further reducing the state’s emissions. Eventually the energy required to operate the railway could be harvested by solar panels installed along the rail or on the cars themselves. Introducing an electric high-speed rail system would be a big step towards sustainability for Colorado.

Further, high-speed rails are very time efficient. They typically clock in at speeds around 200 mph, hypothetically getting you from Denver to Grand Junction in a little over an hour.

By 2040 Colorado is projected to have a population of 8 million, a dramatic increase from today’s 5.3 million. Of course 2040 is still 25 years away. But achieving such a goal is no trivial undertaking — it would take years to organize, fund, and install such a network. An interstate railway is a noble but highly ambitious goal. Economically it would be a heavy investment of both time and money. Environmentally it would be it would be a huge victory. Bureaucratically it would probably be a miracle.

Luckily Colorado has a radical new $53 billion recreational marijuana revenue stream — now we have more resources at our disposal than ever. Even more powerful than that, we have voices, and if our voices are loud enough they can herald great change and adaptation. We have the time, the money can be raised and the incentives are manifold. All that remains is action — a movement — a railway revival.

J.W. Brendza is a recent graduate of the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies.