FasTracks

FasTracks is a twelve-year, $7.9 billion (originally $4.7 billion) cite web
url = http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/03/half-of-fastracks-soaring-cost-tied-to-north-dia/
title = Half of FasTracks soaring cost tied to North Metro, DIA lines
accessdate = 2008-09-04
date= September 3, 2008
work = Rocky Mountain News ] public transportation expansion plan for the Denver-Aurora and Boulder metropolitan areas in Colorado, USA, developed by the Regional Transportation District. The plan calls for six light rail, diesel commuter rail, and electric commuter rail lines with a combined length of 119 miles (192 km) to be opened between 2013 and 2016 to help relieve traffic congestion on the region's roads and highways. It expands on previous transportation projects, notably T-REX. The plan also includes the expansion of existing light rail stations, the addition of a bus-based rapid transit route between Denver and Boulder, and the addition and expansion of bus routes and parking facilities to support the new rail lines.

Location

The new commuter and light rail lines will share a hub at Denver's Union Station. It will undergo $200 million worth of facility improvements as part of FasTracks. Endpoints of the radial rail lines are planned for Longmont, Thornton, Denver International Airport, Lone Tree, Littleton, Golden, and Arvada. FasTracks will include stops near the University of Colorado at Boulder and a connector line through Aurora.

Line details

West Corridor (light rail)

This will be a new light rail line of convert|12.1|mi|km that will follow a former Associated Railroad right-of-way. The line's Final Environmental Impact Statement has been completed and it has entered its Final Design phase. The cost to build the line is estimated to be $635 million*. Twelve stations will be located on the line. There will be an additional 5,054 parking spaces for transit added along the route. The line is scheduled to open in 2013.

In May 2007 it was announced that the line from the Federal Center to JeffCo Government Center will be reduced to a single track to help cut costs. According to RTD, this change will reduce train headways from 5 minutes to 15 minutes and make it easier for the line to run in the median of U.S. 6. cite web|title=Transportation project more than a billion dollars over budget|url=http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=70353|publisher=9news.com|coauthors=Jeffrey Wolf, Deborah Sherman|date=2007-05-18|accessdate=2007-05-18] Preliminary work on the line began on May 16, 2007 at 13th & Quail in Lakewood. A "rail pulling" ceremony was held with Lakewood and RTD representatives in attendance. [ [http://denver.yourhub.com/Lakewood/Stories/News/About-Town/Story~310434.aspx RTD is 'starting out West' > About Town > Stories > Lakewood > YourHub.com ] ] Other costs cuts include building a more narrow path along the line, reducing station sizes to handle only 3 cars instead of 4, the line being built to withstand 5-year storms instead of 100 year storms, et al.

*"Last week (June 18th, 2008), the Regional Transportation District said the price of the first FasTracks line, the west corridor light rail to Golden, has jumped to $707 million from $634 million." June 18th, 2008 - Jeffrey Leib, [ [http://www.masstransitmag.com/web/online/Top-Transit-News/RTD-Seeks-Private-Lifeline/3$6324 The Denver Post: RTD Seeks Private Lifeline] ]

Northwest Rail Corridor (commuter rail)

The Northwest Rail Corridor will be a commuter rail project between Denver, Boulder, and Longmont. The proposed convert|41|mi|km|sing=on line would have seven stations on a route that would follow an existing railroad right-of-way. It is expected to open in 2014 at a cost of $684.4 million.

US 36 Corridor (bus rapid transit)

This will be an convert|18|mi|km|sing=on long express bus line running along US 36 between Denver and Boulder. Six stations are planned along this route, and is expected to cost $235.6 million to build. The project will be completed in two phases, with the first phase to be completed by 2008 and the second by 2016.

East Corridor (commuter rail)

Another commuter rail line that is expected to open in 2015 is the East Corridor, a convert|23.6|mi|km|sing=on line between downtown Denver, Aurora, and Denver International Airport. It is estimated to cost $1.14 billion to build. To expedite travel time between downtown Denver and Denver International Airport, only six stations will be located on the line, namely DIA, Airport Blvd/40th Ave, Peoria/Smith, Stapleton, 40th/40th, and Union Station.

On July 24, 2007, the RTD board chose EMU commuter trains as the mode of rail transportation that will be used on the East Corridor. RTD also announced that the East Corridor had been designated a Public Private Partnership or Penta-P by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Under this program, a private entity would finance, design, build and possibly maintain and operate the rail line. This program is designed to reduce the costs of rail line construction and operation. [http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_1 FasTracks Home ] ]

North Metro Corridor (commuter rail)

The "North Metro Corridor" is a commuter rail that is planned to run along an existing railroad right-of-way from Denver to 160th Avenue in Thornton. The will have eight stations on its 28-mile (28.8km) route. Plans call for the North Metro Corridor line to open in 2015 at estimated construction cost of $637.2 million.

I-225 Corridor (light rail)

Facilitating a circumferential link between the Southeast Corridor and the East Corridor is the I-225 Corridor, a new 10.5-mile (16.8-km) light rail line running through Aurora. The project will include seven new stations and provide 1,800 new parking spaces. This line will open in 2015 and is estimated to cost $619.6 million.

Gold Line (commuter rail)

The Gold Line is an convert|11.2|mi|km|sing=on rail line between Denver and Arvada, which would have seven stations and provide 2,050 new parking spaces. It is expected to open in 2015 and cost $552.5 million to build. Budget concerns have sparked debate over alternatives to light rail on the planned Gold Line. Two alternatives proposed include electric trains on the railroad alignment and the modern streetcar on the 38th and Harlan alignment.

As with the East Corridor, the RTD Board of Directors chose Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) commuter trains to run on the Gold Line; this line has also been designated a Public Private Partnership (Penta-P). [http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_1 FasTracks Home ] ]

Extensions (light rail)

Extensions to light rail lines that have already been completed are planned. Extensions approved by the FasTracks plan include a convert|2.5|mi|km|sing=on extension to the Southwest Corridor, extending the line to the southwest corner of Lucent Boulevard and C-470; a convert|2.3|mi|km|sing=on extension to the Southeast Corridor into Lone Tree; and a convert|0.8|mi|km|sing=on extension to the Central Corridor to connect the 30th & Downing station with the East Corridor commuter rail line at the intersection of 40th & 40th.

Progress

FasTracks is being funded with federal appropriations, private contributions, and a region-wide sales tax increase. The project was allowed to begin when the sales tax portion of its funding was approved by Denver metro area voters in November 2004. The tax went into effect in January 2005.

In 2006, engineering design of the initial segment was begun. The West Corridor line's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has already been completed.

By spring of 2006, the EISs of all other proposed lines were underway. The municipal governments of Denver, Boulder and Lakewood had launched detailed studies of community redevelopment possibilities around station locations. The cities of Westminster, Thornton, Aurora, Greenwood Village, Englewood, Sheridan, and Arvada are also planning transit oriented development areas around some of their proposed rail stations.

Central to the regional nature of the service package is Union Station. Special studies of its redevelopment and adaptation for multiple transport modes have been conducted and engineering design work and property development work was underway in 2006.

In May 2007, a $1.5 billion budget overrun was reported. RTD attributed the problem to construction costs and additional infrastructure requests outside the scope of the original plan. The FasTracks program is also facing the problem of lower-than-expected sales tax revenue. [http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_1 FasTracks Home] ] In September 2008, it was reported that the FasTracks program is facing a $4.2 billion budget overrun [Rocky Mountain News] ] .

Criticisms

Over budget: The original estimate made by the proponents of the FasTracks project touted a total cost of $4.7 billion [ [http://www.i2i.org/main/page.php?page_id=199 FasTracks proponents campaign literature] ] . The estimated had grown to $6.2 billion [ [http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5547337,00.html Rocky Mountain News article from May 21, 2007] ] , and now $7.9 Billion. Fastracks claims this is primarily the result of rapidly increasing costs for raw materials. Crictics point out that their sales tax projects assumed no recessions in the economy, they based their future materials price increases on the CPI which doesn't measure construction costs and at that the price increases in materials fall short in explaining the costs overruns.

No-bid contracts: RTD awarded a no-bid contract for railcars to the Siemens Corporation who contributed $101,000 [ [http://www.i2i.org/main/page.php?page_id=200 Siemens's FasTracks Contributions] ] to the FasTracks Yes campaign issue committee. The current RTD rail system uses Siemens trains. Expanding service using Siemens trains will save considerable cost in maintenance and result in more flexible operations/interchangeabilityFact|date=September 2008 . Before the Fastracks vote, it was RTD's plan to try to use Siemens trains in as many new rail lines as possible. RTD saved money by staying with Siemens, because they had a provision in the contract from the prior order of 34 light rail cars, to double that order in the future at the locked in priceFact|date=September 2008 . This price was considerably less than what the current market priceFact|date=September 2008.

Impact on Congestion Negligible: Rail transit critic Randal O'Toole of the Cato Institute wrote a paper titled "The Full Truth About FasTracks" [ [http://www.independenceinstitute.org/articles/7-2004.pdf The Full Truth About FasTracks] ] prior to the ballot measure passing in November of 2004. This paper contains many criticisms including predictions that FasTracks will have a negligible impact on congestion in the Denver metropolitan region. Randle O'Toole is an active, anti-transit advocate that was hired by the Independence Institute to run an anti-FasTracks campaign running up to the vote in which FasTracks was approvedFact|date=September 2008 . They advocate that any money spent on mass-transit, could have been spent on roads and highways, despite having entirely separate funding sources and operating agencies (Regional Transit District for mass-transit and the Colorado Transportation Department for highways). Ultimately, mass-transit is not designed to relieve traffic congestion on highways, but is intended to offer people an alternative to being stuck in traffic congestion.Fact|date=September 2008

Eminent Domain: Both Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District have used eminent domain to condemn properties in the path of transportation projects. [ [http://www.courts.state.co.us/supct/opinions/2005/05SC816.pdf Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District use of eminent domain] ] While eminent domain, or the forcible taking of private property for a public good, is sometimes unavoidable, organizations such as the Colorado Property Rights Coalition [ [http://www.thecprc.org/ Colorado Property Rights Coalition] ] and the Property Rights Project [ [http://www.propertyrightsproject.org Property Rights Project] ] allege that government transit agencies have abused their condemnation powers in these ways:

1. Transit Oriented Development at 14th and Wadsworth in Lakewood, Colorado [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HHbDQIBkAQ The Human Cost of FasTracks] ] .
2. Inverse condemnation A business at 1195 Benton St. Lakewood CO 80214 [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajo25ayKv3c RTD FasTracks Derails an American Dream] ] .

Most of these claims are backed by property owners affected by eminent domain in which they feel they not only should have received market value for their property, but also what they project as future value of their property will be once the mass-transit project is completedFact|date=September 2008 . This speculation of future value has no basis in eminent domain law.

References

ee also

* Regional Transportation District (RTD)
* TheRide (current transit services provided by RTD)

External links

* [http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_1/ Official Website, and map]
* [http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_lrt_den.htm Light Rail advocacy group]
* [http://www.colorail.org/ Colorado rail advocacy group with local links and documents.]
* [http://www.denverunionstation.org/ Union Station advocacy site]
* [http://www.drcog.org/tod/ DRCOG, a resource for FasTracks TOD plans, news and research.]