Simulation shows a typical streetcar running on Colfax Avenue at Columbine Street.
RTD and other agencies that are planning transit projects will have to wait for new rules to be drafted to see if the Obama Administration’s decision last week removing Bush Administration restrictions on funding transit will bring more money into FasTracks corridors or projects like the proposed Colfax Streetcar.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that making transit grant funding decisions based solely on bottom-line mathematical calculations of, essentially, cost over travel-time savings failed to take into account whether projects improved a community’s livability.
As a result, the DOT will draft new regulations for its New Starts and Small Starts grant programs for transit corridors to allow consideration of such things as lowering carbon emissions, promoting economic development and relieve congestion.
RTD says it’s way too early to know the impact any changes might have on FasTracks corridors that didn’t meet the old threshold for funding.
This U.S. 85 bridge in Douglas County is one of the 124 poor-rated bridges on the list to be replaced with the controversial FASTER auto fee increases. Some opponents will try to repeal the new revenue in 2010.
Follow the money, and you’ll find most of the Top Ten Transportation Stories of 2009.
The transportation funding crisis and the difficult efforts to establish a sustainable annual program are at the foundation of many of the important transportation infrastructure stories.
From Washington to Colfax and Sherman, to your closest light rail station, the disruption to programs caused by the volatility of transportation funding dominated the stories of 2009 – one of the worst economic years in generations.
The entire staff at Inside Lane, together with his wife, Harriet, reviewed the major stories to come up with this list for your consideration.
DIA Press Release
Denver International Airport recorded 4,101,004 passengers in October, a 1.3-percent decline from the 4,154,517 travelers who passed through the facility in the same month last year. Despite the small monthly drop, it was the third-busiest October ever at the Denver airport.
“We continue to be encouraged by the relatively small decline in our traffic,” Aviation Manager Kim Day said Friday. “Because of the sagging economy and the resulting cuts in airline capacity, we had expected we’d see a 2 to 2.5 percent drop in passengers from last year. And that’s where it looks like we will end 2009.”
Year to date through October, passenger traffic at DIA totaled 42,436,235. That was down 2.4 percent from the 43,492,803 travelers who used the facility during the same period of 2008.
DIA handled 49,952 flight operations in October, a decline of 1.0 percent from the same month of last year. For the first 10 months of 2009, DIA’s operations totaled 512,545, 2.8 percent below the 527,163 operations recorded in the same period of last year.
The complete traffic report will be available on DIA’s Web site by following this link:
http://www.flydenver.com/diabiz/stats/traffic/index.asp
Officials from Thornton and other north metro communities oppose RTD’s intention to go ahead and build the FasTracks line to Denver International Airport if other corridors that were promised rail service get short-changed by the program’s current deficit.
Thornton Mayor Erik Hansen, joined at a media briefing Monday by two other elected officials and a financial consultant hired by their recently formed group, the North Area Transportation Alliance, said RTD needs to outline – right now – what it would do in a “Plan B” for FasTracks if any or all of its strategies fail to close a $2.2 billion budget gap.
Describing RTD’s condition as “sound but challenged,” District interim general manager Phil Washington said Tuesday night that it would break ground in August on construction of the FasTracks commuter train to DIA, the Denver Post reports.
RTD officials have said construction of the train to DIA is not dependent on getting federal grant money because it can be built using RTD funds and about $950 million in financing that the PPP companies are expected to bring to the project.
DIA Press Release
Airlines say they expect 960,293 passengers to use Denver International Airport from today through Monday. The total is 31,073 higher than the 929,220 travelers who passed through DIA during Thanksgiving week last year.
The total makes this week the second-busiest Thanksgiving week in the history of the Denver airport. The busiest Thanksgiving week at DIA was in 2006 when, according to numbers provided by the airlines, 966,976 travelers used the airport.
Sunday, Nov. 29, will be the busiest day of the week with 160,854 travelers. That compares with 157,528 passengers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year. The following day, Monday, Nov. 30, will be nearly as busy with 160,063 travelers expected.
The busiest pre-Thanksgiving day this year will be Wednesday, Nov. 25, with 150,007 passengers. That compares with 146,325 on the same day of Thanksgiving week last year.
Other daily passenger totals for the holiday week are: Tuesday, 146,893; Thursday, 97,812; Friday, 106,042; and Saturday, 138,622.
The airport, the Transportation Security Administration, the airlines, and concessionaires will be fully staffed during the week.
Simulation shows the FasTracks East Corridor commuter rail station planned to adjoin the DIA terminal’s south side.
Officials from Denver International Airport and RTD gathered Friday to mark the federal government’s approval this month of two environmental studies that keep crucial FasTracks corridors on the path toward $1 billion in grants.
Environmental Impact Statements for the East Corridor heavy-rail line to DIA from downtown and the companion Gold Line heavy-rail to Arvada and Wheat Ridge both were approved by the Federal Transit Administration.
This allows RTD to proceed with final design, financing and construction. The transit agency in September formally began a procurement process to select a private sector team that would do the work, with selection expected by June.
Contractor crews led by Railroad Specialties of Littleton do track welding as part of the expansion of the Elati light rail maintenance facility and train yard, a part of FasTracks.
RTD has spent or committed $1.17 billion so far on FasTracks, one-sixth of the total estimated cost through 2017 of its rapid-transit expansion program.
The commitment level represents items already paid for plus current work now under contract – 17 percent of the total $6.9 billion projected cost.
Funds have been committed to all 10 rapid transit rail and bus corridors plus assorted common elements such as conversion of Denver Union Station into FasTracks’ main hub, expansion of the light rail maintenance facility in Englewood and planning for a new maintenance facility for heavy-rail commuter train cars.
A significant portion of the commitments have been made to corridors facing cutbacks if no new revenues are found to complete them.
The Oct. 28-29 snowstorm that socked in the metro area for two days last week resulted in multiple highway closures especially on the eastern plains and canceled numerous flights at Denver International Airport. Satellite photos show it had a distinct boundary line along the South Platte River, visible here along the north edge of the snow cover.
On Saturday, as sunny skies took over again, NASA’s Aqua satellite took images over the state that show the reach of the storm.
Open this article to see the statewide satellite photo showing mountain snowpack.
DIA Press Release
Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport totaled 4,011,123 in September, a decline of 0.2 percent over the 4,017,761 travelers recorded at the airport in the same month last year. Despite the nearly flat monthly total, it was the second-busiest September ever at the Denver airport.
Traffic records had been set at DIA the two previous months, when the airport had its busiest month ever in July and its busiest August in history. Traffic growth in those months ended a downward trend that began in December 2008.
“To be down only a fraction of one percent from the same month in 2008, when DIA set its all-time traffic record, is encouraging for us,” Aviation Manager Kim Day said Wednesday. “We still believe that traffic is starting to rebound as the economy improves, and that we will finish 2009 only slightly below last year’s record number.”
For the year, passenger traffic at DIA totaled 38,335,231 through September. That was down 2.5 percent from the 39,338,285 travelers recorded during the first nine months of 2008.
DIA handled 49,287 flight operations in September, also a decline of 0.2 percent from the same month of 2008. For the first nine months of 2009, DIA’s operations totaled 462,593, 3.0 percent below the same period of last year.
The complete traffic report will be available on DIA’s Web site by following this link:
http://www.flydenver.com/diabiz/stats/traffic/index.asp
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