[SnyderBock]

They did not increase headways to "cook" projected ridership numbers. The headways have always been and remain to be: 15min peak / 30min off peak / 60min weekend & Holiday.

What they did do, it refine station location, to optimum locations. The FEIS did just this, concluded where best to locate each station for maximum ridership draw. They also boosted parking at the suburban stations, as the FEIS determined additional parking would be needed to meet the demand and thus boosting parking at suburban stations would boost ridership. They also added an entirely new station in inner Denver at the Denver Coliseum/National Western Stock Show & Rodeo Grounds, which was a result of a new alignment determined to be more cost effective. At this new station, while the National Western only runs for 14 days out of the year, it draws ~700,000 people during that 14 day stretch. The remainder of the year, the Denver Coliseum facility books other events such as Circuses and and the like.

Also, in the original ridership projections, they used data from 2001 and did not take into account future land use changes or future population shifts. The new projections take into account, the land-use pattern changes being observed in the Denver metro area. There has been a significant slow on suburban sprawl and a definite shift towards denser developments and TOD's near existing and planned stations.

And in all honesty, the old method used to project riderships has proven to be inaccurate in every instance in Denver, coming in considerably lower than actual ridership numbers after rail lines begin operation. I do believe the updated ridership projections to be more accurate and they are fully within accepted federal projected ridership calculation methods.