The North Metro commuter rail corridor through the heart of Adams County will be proposed as a single-track line but with five strategically placed double-tracked segments that will allow RTD to slash costs while retaining the capability for 15-minute service on this FasTracks corridor.
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.
RTD Press Release
The North Metro Corridor Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) document is now available for public review and comment. North Metro’s Build Alternative is a proposed 18-mile electric commuter rail transit corridor between Denver Union Station (DUS) and SH7/162nd Avenue in Thornton with eight stations serving Denver, Commerce City, Thornton, Northglenn and unincorporated Adams County. The North Metro Corridor is part of the overall RTD FasTracks plan to build 122 miles of new rail transit and enhanced bus service and park-n-Rides throughout the metro Denver area.
The public hearings are an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on the alternatives evaluation.
Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009
6 p.m. to 8 p.m
Adams 12 Conference Center
1500 E. 128th Ave
Thornton, CO 80241
Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Adams City High School
7200 Quebec Parkway
Commerce City, CO 80022
The Public Hearings will include:
• An Open House format with the opportunity to speak one-on-one with project representatives.
• A brief presentation of the environmental evaluation findings that will begin at 7 p.m.
• Opportunities to submit verbal, written or electronic comments.
• DEIS document available for public review.
The Draft EIS is available for review online at www.RTD-FasTracks.com (click on North Metro) and at the following libraries listed below:
• Central Denver Public Library
10 West 14th Ave. Parkway
Northglenn Branch Library
10530 N. Huron St.
• State Library
201 East Colfax Ave., Suite 314
Rangeview District Admin. Offices
11658 Huron St.
• Valdez-Perry Branch Library
4690 Vine St.
Thornton Branch Library
8992 N. Washington St.
• Commerce City Branch Library
7185 Monaco St.
Brighton Branch Library
327 E. Bridge St.
• Perl Mack Branch Library
7611 Hilltop Circle
North Metro DEIS comments can be submitted until Jan. 15, 2010 through the following methods:
In Person: At the public hearings on Dec. 9 and 10
Online: www.RTD-FasTracks.com – click on North Metro
E-mail: comments@RTDNorthMetro.com
Mail: David Beckhouse
Federal Transit Administration, Region 8
c/o North Metro Project Team
999 18th St., Ste. 900
Denver, CO 80202
Following the public hearings, the project team will address public and agency comments received and prepare the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) document for adoption by the Federal Transit Administration. A Record of Decision is anticipated in July 2010.
RTD Press Release
The Regional Transportation District (RTD) and Union Pacific Railroad (UP) celebrated the transfer of railroad property that RTD purchased from UP for the North Metro rail project that will be built through the FasTracks program.
At a ceremony this morning in Thornton at the site of the future Eastlake Station at 124th and Claude Court, RTD and UP were joined by local stakeholders whose communities will benefit from the project. The property that RTD purchased from UP is known as the Boulder Industrial Lead, a 33-mile stretch of property from Brighton Boulevard to the Valmont Power Plant in Boulder. The property will be used to build out the North Metro commuter rail corridor up to 162nd near State Highway 7. The tracks then turn west and head up to Boulder. The $118 million investment in the North Metro Corridor also allows RTD to preserve right-of-way to Boulder for future expansion.
“The significance of this event is two-fold: It marks years of collaboration with Union Pacific culminating in this purchase of property for FasTracks, and it represents a major investment in laying the foundation for the North Metro Corridor,” said RTD Interim General Manager Phil Washington.
“We appreciate the close working relationship we’ve had over the past several years with RTD and it shows how freight rail and passenger rail can work together for everyone’s benefit,” said Dick Hartman, Union Pacific Director of Public Affairs. “We look forward to continuing to work with RTD and all local stakeholders on FasTracks projects and others of mutual interest to RTD and the railroad.”
The North Metro commuter rail corridor through Denver, Commerce City and Thornton – the second-costliest project in the RTD FasTracks program after the train to Denver International Airport – is going to public hearings next week on a Draft Environmental Impact Statement that has two major items unresolved.
One is the exact route that the double-tracked heavy-rail train cars will take through Commerce City, in light of the costly and technically challenging path through the busy Sand Creek Junction of the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads under Interstate 270.
The other is where to put the Denver station near the Coliseum.
Click through to the story to see maps, read the study, comment on it and find information on the public hearings.
The Regional Transportation District is proposing to donate a portion of a freight rail line it acquired for FasTracks to the Boulder County Railway Historical Society for an excursion-train operation, the Denver Post reports.
RTD bought the 33-mile Boulder Industrial Lead freight line from the Union Pacific Railroad for the FasTracks North Metro Corridor commuter train that is to run between Union Station through and Commerce City/Thornton.
The right of goes beyond the project limits past and turns west, crossing Interstate 25 and into Boulder County. RTD is proposing to license the portion that runs west of I-25 to US 287 to the Boulder railway historical society for 10 years at no cost.
“The proposed operation would consist of a dinner train two nights per week year-round and seasonal heritage trains running five days per week for the summer months of June through September,” RTD said in a lease proposal that RTD directors will vote on next week.
Go to the Denver Post to see the entire article.
A new transportation study group representing 11 local governments and businesses in Denver’s northern suburbs will spend $6,500 to hire a consulting group to review what the group’s chairman calls “flawed” financial projections for the FasTracks transit project, the Denver Business Journal reports.
The North Area Transportation Alliance will hire BBC Research & Consulting, based in Denver, to look at assumptions about FasTracks costs and revenues made by the Regional Transportation District in its annual project review submitted earlier this year to the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
“The dramatic shortfall of funds to complete FasTracks has put communities and businesses in the North Metro area in jeopardy of not getting the transit benefits they were promised in 2004,” Thornton Mayor and NATA Chairman Erik Hansen said in a statement. “Shockingly, it now appears that the refined and updated projections are also flawed. It will be impossible for us to find agreeable solutions for completing FasTracks until the financial plan is based on realistic assumptions and projections.”
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