The Regional Transportation District’s Board of Directors voted unanimously — if tentatively — on Tuesday to explore building a Front Range passenger rail line connecting Denver and Fort Collins through Boulder County.

RTD directors approved an intergovernmental agreement during a special meeting Tuesday afternoon, with several hedging their votes with hesitation about whether the project will make financial sense.

The agreement will create a committee of RTD, Colorado Department of Transportation and Front Range Passenger Rail District officials and task them with developing a plan for a passenger rail line from Denver’s Union Station through Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins. The rail district is set to meet about the agreement this week.

It would also complete the long-promised, never-realized northwest rail approved by voters in 2004 as part of the FasTracks project, according to RTD documents.

The project is still a point of contention for Coloradans north of Denver, and those grievances resurfaced Tuesday.

The Northwest Rail has been “an albatross around our neck,” RTD Director Lynn Guissinger said before the vote.

“This gives us a way to move forward,” she said. “It needs to happen. It gives us the power to go back and really know the numbers.”

Transportation officials say that at current funding levels, RTD’s line between Denver and Boulder County will not be ready until the 2040s — but the Front Range line could be ready as soon as 2029.

Other directors agreed that their future support will hinge on the finances — specifically how much it will cost to use BNSF Railway’s freight line. The new committee will negotiate that number with BNSF.

Director Michael Guzman described his vote as a “tepid yes” while questioning how it would impact RTD’s existing services and how the line would be maintained.

“If we do not have the funding to keep it in a state of good repair and operational, then why are we doing it?” he said.

Potential funding sources for the new line include fees on rental cars and oil and gas production recently approved by the legislature, which bring in about $72 million a year.

RTD has amassed an additional $190 million for future FasTracks projects, and because the line would connect several cities, it could unlock additional federal transportation funds.