The FasTracks Northwest Rail corridor could get a head start under a plan that would build its first six and a half miles, between Denver Union Station and south Westminster at 72nd and Lowell Boulevard, as part of the construction of lines to the airport and Arvada. That will give RTD the capability of initiating rail transit service to southwest Adams County and Westminster sooner rather than later.

A divided RTD board committee has given preliminary approval to removing a set of planned moving walkways from the design of the FasTracks transfer facility at Denver Union Station,a controversial element that has divided transit advocates and helped spawn a lawsuit.

FasTracks’ federal funding picture came into sharper focus on Friday as the Federal Transit Administration announced it will provide the sought-after $304 million in loans toward the conversion of Denver Union Station and $120 million in grants to three rail corridors.

Rendering shows Denver Union Station after its planned conversion into the hub of seven FasTracks rail corridors. DUSPA graphic.

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.

The Denver Business Journal reports that President Obama’s $3.83 trillion proposed budget includes $80 million for two of RTD FasTracks’ major routes: the East Corridor between downtown and Denver International Airport and the Gold Line from downtown to Arvada/Wheat Ridge.

Each line was recommended to receive $40 million as part of the proposed fiscal 2011 budget’s “New Full Funding Grant Agreement Funding Recommendations.” FasTracks’ West corridor, from downtown to Golden, also received a recommendation for $40 million, as part of an existing grant agreement with RTD.

RTD has said it hopes to get up to $1 billion in federal money, through a full funding grant agreement, to help pay for the East and Gold Line corridors.

Peter Rogoff, head of the Federal Transit Administration, said Tuesday during a conference call with reporters to discuss Obama’s budget that those two projects are on a list “that we’re including in the budget, and we’re signaling our intention to sign a full funding grant agreement on these projects before Sept. 30, 2011,”

Go to the Denver Business Journal to see the entire article.

RTD simulation shows a Gold Line heavy-rail commuter train along Ridge Road in Wheat Ridge. The Gold Line dropped 14 percent in price mainly through cuts in project scope and planned service.

While the overall cost of RTD’s FasTracks program dropped 6.4 percent this year in the transit agency’s annual reappraisal of the its costs and revenues, the changes in the program’s individual components – the 10 rapid transit corridors and associated elements – were all over the boards.

And they came not necessarily from the much-anticipated impact of declines in the construction materials cost, but also from RTD’s decision to trim scope from the corridors to try to hold down their costs and get more of the program built by 2017.

RTD now estimates the entire FasTracks program will cost $6.5 billion by 2017 but that it will be short $2.45 billion in financial resources to meet that price – a dilemma that means it can’t all be built without finding new revenues or reducing the price tag further.

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.

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.

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.