RTD simulation shows what the East Corridor electric powered commuter train would look like near DIA.

The Federal Transit Administration on Friday gave its approval to the environmental impact statement for the FasTracks East Corridor project between Denver Union Station and Denver International Airport.

The single most expensive project within the overall $6.9 billion FasTracks program at $1.3 billion, East Corridor is a heavy-rail commuter train project covering 22.8 miles, partly alongside the Union Pacific Railroad tracks – the original railroad line into Denver from the east – and partly along Peña Boulevard. There are five planned stations between downtown and the airport.

You can read the FTA’s approval, called the Record of Decision, here.

Just last week, the FTA gave similar approval for the Gold Line commuter rail between Denver and Arvada/Wheat Ridge. Gold Line is a companion project to the East Corridor in a package being put out for privatization, called Eagle P3. It is an attempt by RTD to reduce its upfront costs for FasTracks by contracting with a private consortium for financing, design, construction, operations and maintenance under a 40-year concession.

Eagle P3 takes its name from East-Gold Line Public-Private Partnership.

“We are pleased that, after so many years of partnership with the community, reliable commuter rail service between Denver Union Station and Denver International Airport is much closer to becoming a reality,” said Carol Duecker, RTD’s project manager for the East Corridor. “The benefits to metro Denver and the neighborhoods this line will serve will be significant.”

Together with construction of a joint-use Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility, planned for 48th Avenue and Fox Street, and a leg of the Northwest Rail project to Westminster, Broomfield, Boulder and Longmont that is shared with the Gold Line, Eagle P3 is valued at $2.3 billion worth of work within FasTracks.

The preferred alternative alignment for the East Corridor, with station locations and optional elements noted.

Proposals from three teams of bidders, which include design firms, contractors, financiers, rail car builders and others, are due in the spring, with RTD planning to select a winning team in June.

East and Gold Line, as a package, are also part of a new federal initiative called “Penta P,” five “Ps” that stand for Public Private Partnership Pilot Program. RTD’s proposal is one of only a few chosen for the special treatment under with FTA wants to determine how well privatization works in developing and operating public transit. It promises expedited decision-making and more generous thresholds for determining federal funding.

RTD has long planned on obtaining at least $1 billion combined in federal grants for the East and Gold Line projects.

While many who are only slightly familiar with RTD’s program use “light rail” as shorthand for all of the projects, the East Corridor is not a light rail project. It and the other three corridors serving the northern metro area will use self-propelled heavy rail commuter cars. Three – East, Gold and the North Metro Corridor to Commerce City/Thornton – will use electric cars and the other, Northwest Rail, is planned for diesel-powered cars.