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FasTracks plan still on track to reach Ranch
The plan to extend the Southwest Light Rail Corridor into Highlands Ranch moved a step closer to reality Tuesday when the Regional Transportation District board of directors voted 14-0 to accept FasTracks, a plan to expand regional mass-transit service.
By By:Tom Munds
The plan to extend the Southwest Light Rail Corridor into Highlands Ranch moved a step closer to reality Tuesday when the Regional Transportation District board of directors voted 14-0 to accept FasTracks, a plan to expand regional mass-transit service.
FasTracks is RTD's proposal to spend $4.7 billion over the next 12 years to create an interconnected system of 118 miles of rail corridors and 18 miles of rapid-transit bus lines that will join with existing transit routes, establishing a mass transit system serving the entire metro area. When FasTracks is complete, people will be able to board a train in Littleton and connect to rapid transit corridors that stretch north as far as 144th Avenue, east as far as Denver International Airport and west as far as Golden.
The plan approved Tuesday includes details about FasTracks ranging from where the money will come from to what each corridor is expected to cost. It is estimated that the work on the Southwest Corridor portion of FasTracks will cost $29.2 million.
FasTracks is really 11 projects in one. Perhaps the project of most interest to Highlands Ranch residents is the plan to enhance and extend the Southwest Light Rail Corridor, which runs parallel to Santa Fe Drive from Mineral Avenue to Broadway and connects with service to downtown Denver and Union station. The plan for this stretch includes construction of a parking garage to consolidate the 1,027 spaces at the Mineral station into a smaller space. The line will be extended 2 1/2 miles south to a station at C-470 and Lucent Boulevard in Highlands Ranch, which would have a 1,000-space Park 'n' Ride.
Even if voters approve hiking the RTD sales tax from six-tenths of a percent to 1 percent (a penny on the dollar), the long-awaited Southwest Corridor Light Rail project remains years away.
"If voters pass the sales tax request in November 2004, RTD begins collecting taxes in January 2005," said Jim Zavist, RTD board representative for this area. "The early construction will be done in areas like the west corridor, where environmental-impact work has been completed. Unfortunately, the two- to three-year environmental assessment process hasn't begun for the Southwest Corridor extension to Highlands Ranch. So when that is figured into the schedule, final planning for the project isn't scheduled to begin until about 2011, and the planned completion date for the extension is 2016."
The Southwest Corridor enhancements are expected to ease the current parking problem at the Mineral Station. Parking there has been a problem since the corridor opened in 2000. A 2002 tally of cars using the Mineral parking lot showed almost 40 percent of the vehicles were registered to Highlands Ranch residents. Extending the line to a planned 1,000-space Park 'n' Ride at C-470 and Lucent Boulevard will provide those drivers with a closer option.
RTD board approval of FasTracks begins a six- to eight-month administrative process. As the first step, RTD will forward the plan to the Denver Regional Council of Governments. As the metropolitan transit planning organization, DRCOG's approval is necessary before RTD can seek federal funding assistance.
The DRCOG review is expected to take about five months. If DRCOG approves FasTracks as expected, the next step will be to ask voters to approve the tax increase. To that end, RTD plans to hold at least two public meetings in each of the six counties included in RTD during the next two months. Then in April, the board will hold a special meeting to authorize a request to the secretary of state to put the issue on the November 2004 ballot.
If the secretary of state approves the request, volunteers will set out to collect the approximately 50,000 signatures needed to get the issue on the ballot. The goal is to have the petitions filed and approved by September 2004.
A sales tax increase would allow RTD to repay a planned bond issue, which would provide about $2.4 billion for the program. Certificates of Participation would raise about $190 million and RTD would put up about $924 million in "pay-as-you-go" cash. RTD is seeking about $851 million in federal funds. The remainder, about $350 million, would come from the contributions of communities along the corridors and a Transportation Infrastructure Financial Innovation loan.
FasTracks is RTD's proposal to spend $4.7 billion over the next 12 years to create an interconnected system of 118 miles of rail corridors and 18 miles of rapid-transit bus lines that will join with existing transit routes, establishing a mass transit system serving the entire metro area. When FasTracks is complete, people will be able to board a train in Littleton and connect to rapid transit corridors that stretch north as far as 144th Avenue, east as far as Denver International Airport and west as far as Golden.
The plan approved Tuesday includes details about FasTracks ranging from where the money will come from to what each corridor is expected to cost. It is estimated that the work on the Southwest Corridor portion of FasTracks will cost $29.2 million.
FasTracks is really 11 projects in one. Perhaps the project of most interest to Highlands Ranch residents is the plan to enhance and extend the Southwest Light Rail Corridor, which runs parallel to Santa Fe Drive from Mineral Avenue to Broadway and connects with service to downtown Denver and Union station. The plan for this stretch includes construction of a parking garage to consolidate the 1,027 spaces at the Mineral station into a smaller space. The line will be extended 2 1/2 miles south to a station at C-470 and Lucent Boulevard in Highlands Ranch, which would have a 1,000-space Park 'n' Ride.
Even if voters approve hiking the RTD sales tax from six-tenths of a percent to 1 percent (a penny on the dollar), the long-awaited Southwest Corridor Light Rail project remains years away.
"If voters pass the sales tax request in November 2004, RTD begins collecting taxes in January 2005," said Jim Zavist, RTD board representative for this area. "The early construction will be done in areas like the west corridor, where environmental-impact work has been completed. Unfortunately, the two- to three-year environmental assessment process hasn't begun for the Southwest Corridor extension to Highlands Ranch. So when that is figured into the schedule, final planning for the project isn't scheduled to begin until about 2011, and the planned completion date for the extension is 2016."
The Southwest Corridor enhancements are expected to ease the current parking problem at the Mineral Station. Parking there has been a problem since the corridor opened in 2000. A 2002 tally of cars using the Mineral parking lot showed almost 40 percent of the vehicles were registered to Highlands Ranch residents. Extending the line to a planned 1,000-space Park 'n' Ride at C-470 and Lucent Boulevard will provide those drivers with a closer option.
RTD board approval of FasTracks begins a six- to eight-month administrative process. As the first step, RTD will forward the plan to the Denver Regional Council of Governments. As the metropolitan transit planning organization, DRCOG's approval is necessary before RTD can seek federal funding assistance.
The DRCOG review is expected to take about five months. If DRCOG approves FasTracks as expected, the next step will be to ask voters to approve the tax increase. To that end, RTD plans to hold at least two public meetings in each of the six counties included in RTD during the next two months. Then in April, the board will hold a special meeting to authorize a request to the secretary of state to put the issue on the November 2004 ballot.
If the secretary of state approves the request, volunteers will set out to collect the approximately 50,000 signatures needed to get the issue on the ballot. The goal is to have the petitions filed and approved by September 2004.
A sales tax increase would allow RTD to repay a planned bond issue, which would provide about $2.4 billion for the program. Certificates of Participation would raise about $190 million and RTD would put up about $924 million in "pay-as-you-go" cash. RTD is seeking about $851 million in federal funds. The remainder, about $350 million, would come from the contributions of communities along the corridors and a Transportation Infrastructure Financial Innovation loan.
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