Quote:
Originally Posted by Octavian
Something else to keep in mind . . . the difficulty of securing ROW for high speed rail. Might some of the existing I-70 ROW be used for this purpose?
|
Maybe... but I think it's going to land too far behind any decision on I-70 to work. The I-70 west DEIS did not address connecting any proposed train to DIA. Pretty sure the proposal in there had it ending west of town (that's where their study area ended - they specifically said, beyond that is somebody else's business). Add to that the difficulty of convincing anybody it's worthwhile when you have two fastracks lines ending on the west side of town to connect into (nobody around here seems to think that a transfer is a very big deal). The only ones who'd care about that last segment would be folks looking at an overall system of Front Range and I-70 rail... but that feasibility study is a long long ways from implementation, and the coordination with other planning efforts (I-70) is completely missing for now. I don't know, but I just can't see who is going to be thinking rail ROW between downtown and DIA by the time I-70 starts to seriously move forward. Even something as simple as - who reserves the ROW? The city? (not even a participant) CDOT? (barely interested) RMRA? (broke)
I'm no oracle. But if we do get rail on I-70 and front range rail, it is all-too-easy for me to see phase 1 west rail ending at the Jeffco Govt Center light rail station, alongside a gargantuan park-n-ride for skier traffic (or a second stop at the existing park-n-rides, or just a stop there and a shuttle to the light rail station). And front range rail doing its thing, via union station. Without, at least at the beginning, a direct connection. And those who would want to travel from DIA to Vail having to transfer twice (Union Station and Golden). It's just too easy to see. It fits how we've been doing transit planning around here. Especially if we end up with a more traditional inter-city rail technology (nothing fancy) on at least one of the two corridors... Having dual lines between Golden and Downtown (and/or god forbid, all the way to DIA)... Going to be a very tough sell to build where we already have a line running, just to make it a one seat ride.
Sorry, wrong thread for that. But relevant to the idea of ROW preservation. A part of me has always thought, if we were serious about a DIA-Mtn Corridor rail connection, we needed to get that moving before Fastracks was done. Maybe run the mountain train as far as Ward Road and I am sure the Eagle P3 folks would be more than happy to oblige (someday) and get folks to DIA - maybe then we even get that elusive east-west through train (not sure if it's technically feasible, but I bet there'd be a way, I'll have to ask).