The Denver Post reports that some RTD directors are upset over a proposal to eliminate moving walkways from a combination underground bus station and passageway linking planned light-rail and commuter-rail platforms at Denver’s Union Station.
“It’s the same kind of bait and switch” as when the light-rail platform was moved 2 1/2 blocks west of Union Station in the redevelopment design for the area, said board member Wally Pulliam. The moving sidewalks are supposed to make the transfer between the light-rail and commuter-rail stations easier for commuters, Pulliam said.
The Denver Union Station Project Authority, which is planning the $480 million remake of the station area as part of FasTracks, says the underground bus station linking the two rail facilities is too narrow and crowded for the currently designed moving walkways and they likely will increase congestion for pedestrians.
The Denver Post reports that Denver officials are considering assuming a “moral obligation” of up to $8 million a year from its general fund to back up about $300 million in federal loans for redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station area.
The backing would be needed if tax receipts from the redevelopment fail to cover debt payments.
Denver finance chief Claude Pumilia told members of the Denver City Council’s FasTracks committee that the action is needed quickly to keep the $480 million project on schedule.
Rendering shows DUS underground bus station with moving sidewalks now proposed to be removed.
Rail transit advocates on criticized a change in the FasTracks’ Denver Union Station design that they had both predicted and feared – planners are now proposing to remove moving walkways from a below-ground covered bus station meant to help transport riders between light rail and commuter train platforms nearly three blocks apart.
The Colorado Rail Passengers Association, which has long advocated keeping the light rail and heavy rail boarding areas adjacent to each other, said it expected the proposed change because it always thought there wasn’t enough room for the moving sidewalks within the bus station area connecting the two train platforms.
ColoRail president Ira Schreiber said changes need to be made in the plan. “This shows that the present plan does not work to serve the future users of Denver Union Station.”
By Bob Brewster
Vice President, Colorado Rail Passenger Association
Why would a group of especially devoted and knowledgeable rail advocates bring a legal action against the redevelopment plan for Denver Union Station? In a word: Violations. It violates good principles of transportation, it violates the Vision Statement of the plan, it violates fiscal prudence, it violates the historical character and protection of the station, and it violates the trust of the voters who taxed themselves for an efficient rail system for their future mobility requirements.
Transit advocates might seem like odd opponents of a transit project, but members of Colorail – the Colorado Rail Passenger Association – and their supporters plan to speak out Thursday night against the current design of the FasTracks rail hub at Denver Union Station.
The occasion is a public meeting of the Denver Union Station Project Authority, the entity overseeing the financing and contracts for the redevelopment of the historic station and its environs.
Colorail members say the way the design evolved over the past few years makes the so-called “crown jewel” of RTD’s FasTracks program more like costume jewelry. But RTD and its supporters say the current design is a result of cost constraints, operational issues and consensus building over the course of a lengthy environmental process, and that the issues Colorail raises were discussed and settled. Reversing course would add cost and schedule delay that the FasTracks program cannot absorb.
With the start of construction at Denver Union Station, the Gate F bus stop at Wewatta and 17th Street has been relocated to Wewatta and19th Street. The construction on Wewatta is being done to relocate underground pipes and utilities as part of the overall DUS re-construction project. The utilities relocation work should take about eight weeks.
Large orange construction signs are in place to direct customers to the relocated stop. Passengers who board the bus at this stop should allow a few extra minutes to account for the added walking distance
RTD is holding two public hearings in the coming weeks on the FasTracks Gold Line Final Environmental Impact Statement, and anticipates getting federal approval for the project in the fall.
The Gold Line is an 11.2-mile heavy-rail commuter corridor that connect Denver Union Station with Wheat Ridge at Ward Road, while preserving a future extension corridor from there into Golden.
The Gold Line has been packaged into a single initiative called Eagle P3, a planned Public-Private Partnership, with the East Corridor commuter rail project to Denver International Airport and construction of a rail yard and maintenance facility for all four FasTracks commuter rail corridors.
If successful, a consortium of designers, contractors, transit operators and financiers will take over the two corridors and other associated work, finance it privately, design it and build it, and then operate it for at least 40 years, under a contract with RTD.
The upside for RTD is that, by converting projects it would have to pay entirely upfront through borrowing and grants into a long-term concession contract for which it would make annual payments to the operators, it could build some financial breathing room into the beleaguered FasTracks plan of finance.
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