Yes, Hyundai-Rotem is a partner in Denver Transit Partner's contract to Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain the RTD Denver's Eagle P3 project which includes all of the 22.8 mile East Corridor EMU line to Denver International Airport, all of the 11.2 mile Gold Corridor EMU line to Arvada and the short North West Electrified Segment (NWES) EMU portion to South Westminster, of the longer North West Corridor DMU line which will continue on to Boulder.
Hyundai-Rotem has said from the start, that it would use a customized variant of it's most modern FRA-Compliant EMU. While this is rather vague as to the exact model, one does not have to look to far to find that their Silverliner V would be both modern and, their only FRA-complicant EMU.
The link you shared, when investigated, provides the most concrete evidence to date, that Denver Transit Partner's will in fact, be ordering Silverliner V's for Denver's EMU lines. Up until now, because of the lack of official information in regards to the exact train-set rolling stock to be used, there has been speculation that Hyundai-Rotem might be planning to, instead use, FP class Hyundai-Rotem EMU's or Canada Line Hyundai-Rotem EMU's and then modify them so as they could be granted FRA-compliance.
These speculations were never considered to be serious possibilities, because the Silverliner V is both a fully modernized train-set and already FRA-compliant. Plus it will have a couple solid years of operational testing and adjustments under it's belt in Philadelphia, before the Denver order begins being filled, meaning it will be a proven FRA-compliant train-set, by the time it starts rolling into service in Denver. This should greatly reduce the potential for developmental and engineering related delays and certainly should prove more economically feasible to the tight Denver RTD budget. So it is indeed good to have visual confirmation of Silverliner V's being driven on a test run for a Denver Transit Partners demonstration.
In related news, a separate rail corridor soon to be constructed in Denver under the RTD's FasTracks program, the North Corridor line, has just completed work with the FTA and released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). They are now receiving public input and RTD and the FTA will release their Record of Decision this spring.
The FEIS for RTD's North Corridor has concluded the preferred technology will be FRA-compliant EMU's and not DMU's. This means that most likely (for maintenance compatibility), in addition to the initial rolling stock order of 50 Silverliner V's for the Eagle P3 East, Gold and NWES, now the North Corridor will also be using and ordering Silverliner V's, sometime in the next few years (apparently). This brings the total track mileage for Denver's EMU system, to a total of over 54 miles (22.8-mile East, 11.2-mile Gold, 2.2-mile NWES, 18-mile North).
They have also updated the projected ridership and the time frames for these projections. In the Preliminary Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), the report had projected just over 14,000 daily weekday riders in by the year 2030. Now with more accurate information and taking into account population growth changes in the region, the FEIS has projected this North Corridor EMU will have over 24,000 daily weekday riders by 2035. This is a significant improvement and opens up the possibility that it may now qualify to apply for Federal New Starts funding, whereas before it did not meet the minimum standards and thus has never counted on federal funding to be used on this line (100% local funding). If granted any federal funding at all, it could accelerate the construction buildout of this corridor significantly and also ease the financial strain on other less than fully funded FasTracks transit corridors.
**Please Review North Corridor FEIS Here**
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