By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff is in Denver on Friday to talk about the Obama Administration’s inclusion of $80 million in initial grants to the FasTracks East Corridor and Gold Line projects and to disclose whether the feds will issue a $300 million loan to the FasTracks renovation of Union Station.

The proposed fiscal year 2011 grants of $40 million each to the East Corridor line to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada-Wheat Ridge come under the Federal Transit Administration’s New Full Funding Grant Agreement Funding Recommendations.

It is a good sign that the agency intends to follow up with full grant agreements for the two lines. The $1.233 billion East Corridor financing plan anticipates $850.44 million New Starts grant, while the $517 million Gold Line plan includes a $180 million New Starts grant.

Read a fact sheet on the East Corridor New Starts Grant process here.

Read a fact sheet on the Gold Line New Starts Grant process here.

Getting the grants would be a bright spot for RTD and its FasTracks financial plan, which has been beleaguered by cost increases and revenue losses.

A decision on the full grants won’t be made until after this summer, when RTD expects to select a team of private companies that would sign a 40-year concession to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the East and Gold Line corridors, as well as a commuter rail maintenance facility.

That pre-packaged combination of FasTracks corridors is being done under an umbrella called Eagle P3, a name derived from “East-Gold Line Public-Private Partnership.” RTD’s plan is that by bringing in private entities with equity and private financing, in exchange for spreading out RTD’s annual concession payments over 40 years to the partners for their work, it can lower its own immediate need for capital funds and make more money available now for other corridors.

The East and Gold Line, unlike RTD’s currently operating light rail system, are planned to be heavy rail, using self-propelled electric commuter rail cars called Electric Multiple Units.

Rogoff is also expected to make an announcement about whether the federal government will make a $300 million loan to the project to convert Union Station into the hub of FasTracks. That is also a key element in the FasTracks financing plan.

Neither the grants nor the loan represent new money into the program, but getting them would help RTD solidify its current plan by eliminating some of the current unknowns.