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The Future of FasTracks | part one of three – 1 2 3

Stops sparse along north corridor
Federal regulation, long distance needs dictate rail choice
By Geof Wollerman
gwollerm@mscd.edu

Photo by Tyler Walton• twalton2@mscd.edu Existing heavy-rail tracks run through Thornton subdivisions located in the north metro corridor of FasTracks. The Regional Transportation District plans to utilize these tracks for the corridor’s newly planned commuter line, which will provide fewer stops but more amenities.

Recent developments with RTD’s FasTracks transit plan have shed light on how much its completion is dependent upon overextended budgets and the pitfalls of community opinion.

In December, RTD planners decided to go ahead with plans to build a commuter-rail line into the north metro corridor, rather than one of the light-rail lines that has been ubiquitous throughout the FasTracks project thus far.

Commuter-rail trains run on traditional, or heavy-rail, tracks, whereas light-rail trains run on different tracks developed for shorter commutes and lighter cars.

As it stands now, the plan calls for an 18-mile stretch of heavy rail with eight stops between Union Station and 162nd Avenue. This means an average of one stop every 2.25 miles, compared with the recently completed southeast corridor that provides 13 stops over the same stretch of rail.

Despite objections some may have about this decision, there is not much that can be done. Ever since voters approved it, the FasTracks plan has been subject to change, said Kristi Estes, FasTracks’ spokeswoman for the north metro corridor project.

“I think people were under the impression that it’s all light rail, and I think that’s only because that’s what we know in Denver,” Estes said, adding that the project was always intended to utilize several technologies.

“FasTracks was carefully crafted to please as many people as possible in order to secure passage,” said Tom Clark, a UCD planning professor. “It was the package that the voters bought.”

The decision to go with commuter rail in the north metro corridor means there will be fewer stops along the corridor because heavy-rail cars need more distance to speed up and slow down, Clark said. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

“The longer routes are probably better served by heavy rail, because typically the longer routes that are interurban – up and down the front range – would benefit from higher speeds, which can be attained only with heavy rail and fewer stops along the way,” he said.

Estes agreed about the benefit of fewer stops and pointed out that the commuter cars would feature more creature comforts such as space for laptops and cozier seats.

Part of the reason planners decided on commuter rail was a recent federal regulation prohibiting light rail from being built along an existing heavy-rail right of way, or the path of land that tracks follow, an option planners had previously explored. Planners did look into developing a new light-rail right of way along Washington Street, but the project’s $420 million budget could only afford land as far as 88th Avenue, an option that did not work for commuters, Estes said.

More than 2,000 Metro students live in Adams County, which the north metro corridor would primarily serve, and it is unclear how the developments within the project will affect them. RTD had only begun looking at basic transportation patterns and not specific demographics within those patterns, Estes said.

Larry Burgess, president of the Elyria/Swansea Business Association, attended some of RTD’s north metro corridor community meetings and said he is concerned that the commuter-rail lines won’t serve enough stops to make it convenient for riders.

“What they’re doing is putting the stops so far apart that it’s not clear that people are going to be using it,” Burgess said.

After living in Washington, D.C., where light-rail service provided stops every few blocks, he knows now that he never would have used the service if the stops had been miles apart.

“I could get around all over the Washington, D.C., area downtown and never walk more than four or five blocks,” Burgess said. “We won’t be able to do that, in my opinion, with what we have presently.”

If RTD planners can keep expanding on the project and identifying places where other stops can be built in the future, he said the project will then be a success.

“If they stop where they are today, I’m not so sure how many people are going to ride it. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Despite what some see as drawbacks to the project, Estes said she believes the completion of the north metro corridor will still help alleviate the traffic problems on I-25.

“Anytime you put a rail close to a busy highway, a lot of those folks are going to leave their cars at home and move over into the rails,” Estes said. “It helps not only the people who want to take a train down to Union Station or out to DIA -– it also helps people who want to take their cars because there’s less people on the highway.”