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  #121  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2009, 12:25 AM
FoUTASportscaster FoUTASportscaster is offline
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Apparently, Denver's share of transit ridership has increased dramatically.

http://www.commoncurrent.com/notes/2...-public-t.html

Quote:
...
Hickenlooper said the city wanted to reach 20 percent ridership by 2020, even 25 or 30 percent if it could. Little did he know at the time that the city would be on its way to hitting its goal without even laying one mile of new rail under the FasTracks. (Denver has recently extended its southern light rail line through a federal funding initiative separate from FasTracks, so that did help boost its ridership to a degree).

Peter Park, Denver's chief city planner, credits a number of approaches with the big gains in transit use. Strategic transit plans laid out in the 2002 Blueprint Denver document are explicit about not adding extra freeway lanes or widening city streets; these acts often occur as a panacea for traffic congestion. Most studies show such isolated approaches only eventually create more congestion.

Instead, Blueprint Denver took the radical tact of not projecting how many vehicles would be needed to get people around the growing city, but instead projected the number of "person trips": driving, transit, walking and riding bikes.

Another strategy was the Living Streets program, created by the public works department in collaboration with a range of civic and commercial organizations, including Kaiser Permanente. "The idea was that roads are for cars: streets are for people," said Park.
...
So, Denver has proven that you can increase transit ridership by not planning for the car. Interesting.
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  #122  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2009, 2:14 AM
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Originally Posted by SnyderBock View Post
The West Corridor LRT line is now in full construction phase!
When is it scheduled to be finished?
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  #123  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2009, 2:21 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SnyderBock View Post
The West Corridor LRT line is now in full construction phase!
you can really see it around the US6/C470/I70/Colfax area towards Golden.
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  #124  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2009, 2:32 AM
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Quote:
The boldest move by a US city to remake its transportation system occurred five years ago, when Denver metro area voters in 31 communities committed $4.7 billion in sales tax funding for its FasTracks initiative.

It turns out not one of the 119 miles of promised light rail have been built yet because of material and land acquisition cost increases, a poor economy and other complications. Through city-wide strategies for making public transit, walkability and bikeability the modes for addressing freeway and city arterial congestion, however, Denver has so-far succeeded despite the snafus.

The city has almost doubled its public transit ridership since FasTracks was passed in 2004. In 2004 about five percent of city commuters used public transit; that figure hit nine percent in 2008, figures recently released by the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
That [bold text] is very misleading. None of FasTracks was supposed to be completed now. The first line was planned to be the West Corridor light rail line in 2013. It is currently under construction and due to open in 2013. Union Station was do to begin construction this spring, but it was delayed until this fall. They have now begun that construction and it too is do to open in 2013 (in time for the West Corridor LRT line opening).

The East and Gold line EMU lines are just now wrapping up their Final EIS reports and were never planned to be under construction by now -- they are both on schedule.

My point, nothing was supposed to be built yet. That article makes it sound like there were supposed to be light rail lines done by now. If they go and say those things to the general public, people will think it's true and it could hurt public opinion of FasTracks.

The economic and financial issues at hand have not delayed any transit lines from being completed yet. Some of the proposed lines might be delayed or shortened, if additional funding is not secured. But as of now, those cited issues have not resulted in any significant delays of FastTacks lines. It's also worth noting that he refers to all the lines as "Light Rail," when in fact two will be high frequency EMU and two will be high frequency DMU lines.

Other than that, it was a good article and I thank you very much for sharing it with us! It is good to read that the TOD's which are starting to fill in are helping ween Denver off foreign oil and the auto-dependent lifestyle. And yes, Blue Print Denver and zone changes are doing tremendous things for the walkability and helping to promote bike and transit use.
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Last edited by SnyderBock; Oct 16, 2009 at 2:49 AM.
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  #125  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2009, 2:59 AM
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^Yeah, I thought the same thing when I read it. Not knowing the full details of the project, it seemed unlikely to me that any significant work was done in the planning phases of the lines before it would go to the voters. Assuming an aggressive 3 years in planning and securing the capital needed for construction and another three years for construction, at best a line wouldn't have opened until next year.

But, I did like the artice from the standpoint that it illustrated that even auto-oriented cities, with proper goals and policies in place, can drasticaly increase ridership. And let me say, that going from under 5% to 10% is a tremendous feat and Denver should be pointed to as a model. To me, it is proof that it can be done, and relatively quickly.
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  #126  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2009, 3:42 PM
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Here is some detailed information about the construction of the West Corridor LRT. This information confirms that not only is this project on schedule, but now on pace for completion a year ahead of the original plan.

Quote:
Originally Posted by IN Denver Times
By News Desk on June 24, 2009 Read Full Article Here...

The West Corridor line will operate between Denver Union Station in downtown Denver and the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden, serving Denver, Lakewood, the Denver Federal Center, Golden and Jefferson County. The corridor is scheduled to open to the public in 2013, one year ahead of schedule.

FasTracks is RTD’s voter-approved 12-year program to expand rail and bus service throughout the RTD service area. Scheduled for completion in 2017, FasTracks will build 122 miles of rail transit, including six new commuter rail and light rail lines and extensions of three existing lines; build 18 miles of bus rapid transit service; add 21,000 parking spaces; redevelop Denver Union Station; and redirect bus service to better connect the eight-county district.
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  #127  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 5:01 PM
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Feds approve 2 FasTracks lines
Denver Business Journal
Monday, November 9, 2009, 2:53pm MST


The Federal Transit Administration has given its approval to two major pieces of Denver’s FasTracks project, the Regional Transporation District said Monday.

The approval is critical for the two lines — the Gold line from downtown to Arvada and the East line from downtown to Denver International Airport — to get federal money to pay for construction.

The Federal Transit Administration has issued its “Record of Decision,” or formal approval of the route, technologies, station locations and environmental protection or mitigation efforts associated with the Gold and East lines, RTD spokeswoman Pauletta Tonillas said Monday.

FTA issued its approval for the Gold line on Nov. 2 and for the East line on Nov. 6, she said.

“It’s significant,” Tonillas said. “These are major milestones. When you have two major projects that go through an analysis and evaluation process, and you have FTA as your partner through that and then FTA gives final approval, it’s a major step forward for us.”

To pay for the estimated $2.3 billion Gold and East lines, RTD is hoping to get up to $1 billion in federal funding. The agency also hopes that teams bidding for the contract to design, build, operate, maintain and finance the lines will bring up to $1 billion of their own money to the project.

RTD has said it can pay for the remaining portion of the two lines.
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  #128  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2009, 9:31 AM
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Denver Union Station 60% Design Phase Report

This is a must read report, packed with extensive graphics and details about the project, which until now have been far less defined and somewhat speculative.

It's looking great!
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Last edited by SnyderBock; Nov 13, 2009 at 8:38 PM.
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  #129  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2009, 3:28 PM
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^Absolutely. For anyone interested in the nitty gritty design details of this project, this is a must see.
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  #130  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2009, 5:10 PM
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Excellent read. Thanks for the link, SnyderBock!

Aaron (Glowrock)
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  #131  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 3:37 AM
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Cool. The bus terminal provides an all-weather connection between commuter trains and light-rail. The moving sidewalks are a nice touch for anybody trying to make that transfer. Wish we could be so pragmatic in Chicago about the need to build an integrated transit center.

Will the new platforms be long enough for Amtrak trains?
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  #132  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 4:18 PM
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There will be one dedicated AmTrak platform, but two platforms will actually be long enough for AmTrak Trains. This includes an AmTrak refueling station (shown in green) at the end of those platforms. They are located as the middle two platforms of the eight platforms in the Commuter Rail Terminal. I have provided a depiction showing this--which is from an earlier document in the engineering process. Below that, I have another version of it which I edited to better illustrate platform locations:




=======================================================================================


There are 8 Commuter Rail Platforms (7 used, 1 for future service); 22 Bus Bays; 2 LRT Platforms (plus reserved ROW for future 3rd platform)
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Last edited by SnyderBock; Nov 14, 2009 at 4:41 PM.
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  #133  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 5:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SnyderBock View Post
I
The total post FasTracks rail system should expect a system-wide rai1 daily ridership in 2020 of somewhere between 140,000-180,000 passengers. A 2030 system-wide daily ridership projection would likely be between 180,000-220,000 passengers. This does not include BRT passengers.
Are you sure about those numbers? That seems really low for such a large network. A network like that should carry 500,000-one million riders a day given Metro Denver's size and the extensive route network of the rail lines.
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  #134  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 6:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by miketoronto View Post
Are you sure about those numbers? That seems really low for such a large network. A network like that should carry in 500,000-one million riders a day given Metro Denver's size and the extensive route network of the rail lines.
It's not how large a rail system is as much as how dense the neighborhoods are. Denver isn't all that dense once you leave the central business district.
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  #135  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 6:36 PM
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In the past, RTD has undershot all it's ridership projections for new lines by large amounts. It could turn out to be 25%-50% greater than those projections. RTD low balls ridership projections for "worst case scenario." These projection do not take into consideration medium to high density TOD's being developed around station sites, or the cultural shift we are seeing in Denver were residents are using public transit more and more at a growing rate.

But if you look at other comparable systems in the USA already in operation and I don't see too many in the 750,000-1,000,000 passengers a day range. 600,000 daily train riders would be a lot for Denver (~20% of its entire metro population per day using a train). That is certainly Denver's goals, but in the Federal Cost Effective study ridership projections, they go with very safe, guaranteed minimum expected ridership numbers.

For example, Denver's SW LRT line was expected (projected prior to construction) to reach ~25,000 daily riders in 2030. It's already passed that projected 2030 ridership, today. But many of the TOD's are just now filling in and some have not even hardly started yet. {These numbers were off the top of my head and not precise}

I project system-wide 2020 daily rail ridership to be 200,000 passengers. In 2030, TOD's will be all built out and people should be well used to a transit lifestyle, so I put my 2030 projected ridership at 248,000 passengers. I would expect 500,000/daily by 2050.

========================================================================================================
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pizzuti View Post
I could care less what the train looks like from the outside. The people who say "ew, public transportation is ugly" are already going to avoid RTD.

That said, I don't know why they can't just model these off the current Light Rail. I'm not saying build identical trains, but at least try to dupilciate the positive features.

The thing I like best about our light rail trains is the big windows, so you can see where you are from inside the train. It helps you find your stop (since the voice announcements so often tell you the wrong stop) and it gives you a chance to view the city from a variety of angles. And it's just pleasant to have natural daylight coming in no matter the circumstances.

I'd say the most important thing to do is increase the size of those windows.
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Originally Posted by Busy Bee View Post
^That is absolute BULLSHIT! I HATE that argument! From the perspective that good industrial design should not be considered a luxury... You CAN have both great looking rolling stock that function properly, it just requires people wanting it and expecting it.

I believe wholeheartedly that the quest for excellent transit vehicle design should be no different than the quest for excellent and forward looking automobile design or any consumer product for that matter.

Jesus, check out a book on Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy or Donald Deskey if you want to see what cutting edge design applied to public transport looked like back in the day and how that standard got diluted into the incredibly low expectations Americans have for transit vehicle aesthetics today.
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Originally Posted by Busy Bee View Post
Do we know what the new EMU's are going to look like?
The development group lead by Bombardier biding on the Design-Build-Operate-Maintain PPP for the Airport and Gold EMU lines, has dropped out of the competition. They did not believe they could get a competitive bid together before the deadline and said if RTD wanted to delay the project by 6 months to a year, they would re-enter the competition--as they are very interested in this project.

However, RTD said they have no plans to delay the project. So Bombardier is out. Bombardier said they could not put together a team and competitive bid in time. Of course, this has been 3 years in the making. Bombardier missed the boat!

This leaves two development teams left bidding for the contract. The most notable group is lead by Siemens, Kiewit Construction and HSBC.

-Kietwit construction has constructed Denver's other operational rail lines and is lead contractor in the construction of Union Station.
-As to date, all of Denver's rail transit are Siemens.
-HSBC is one of the world's top 4 largest banks.


That combo is going to be hard to beat! If this team wins, they would certainly use Siemens EMU's (simular to this model).



Breaking News!
Quote:
Union Station transit-hub project wins loan rating

Officials promoting the $500 million redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station as an expanded transit hub said Thursday that they have received an “investment grade” designation from Fitch Ratings for an all-important loan that the project hopes to get from the federal government.

The Denver Union Station Project Authority hopes to borrow between $300 million and $330 million from several loan programs offered by the U.S. Transportation Department.

The authority needed the initial positive credit assessment from Fitch before it could even apply for one of the loans, said Denver finance chief Claude Pumilia, who is on the board of the authority.

With the Fitch rating in hand, the station authority can start the process of negotiating terms of the loan package with federal officials, Pumilia said. Officials hope they can close on the loans in January. Doing so would allow construction to begin in earnest at Union Station.

Jeffrey Leib, The Denver Post
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  #136  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 7:06 PM
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Quote:
Are you sure about those numbers? That seems really low for such a large network. A network like that should carry in 500,000-one million riders a day given Metro Denver's size and the extensive route network of the rail lines.
This system isn't as big as you think it is, and it's a mix of light and commuter rail, not metro rail.
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  #137  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 7:42 PM
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Yes, that's an excellent point Cirrus...

Denver's Light Rail lines are used in the more "metro-like" form and less as the "streetcar-like" form, for the most part. The 19.2 mile SE Light Rail line will ultimately operate near the upper capacity limits of LRT. Running 4-car stations instead of the more common 2 and 3-car LRT lines, on dedicated ROW with grade separated crossings. This line connects Downtown with the regions 2nd largest employment center, the Denver Tech Center and reaches out to the regions' largest suburbs. This line will likely carry up to ~65,000 daily riders by 2035.

The other notable line is the East Line to Denver International Airport. This 23 mile, $1.3 billion EMU Commuter Rail line will also operate at it's upper capacity limits, eventually--making it probably the closest thing to a metro line Denver will have. It will operate on quality 15 minute peak and 15 minute off peak frequency. So no reduced service for off peak times. This line could easily have daily ridership of 35,000 by the year 2020. I would not be surprised if ridership grew rapidly to close to 55,000 by 2030. These will most likely be 79-mph, FRA-compliant electric multiple units.

Those are the two biggest lines.
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Last edited by SnyderBock; Nov 14, 2009 at 8:54 PM.
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  #138  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 8:05 PM
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On the west side line, I know they opted to cut costs by reducing the final leg between Federal Center and Jefferson County Government Center to just one track. The frequency dropped to 15 minutes now... does that mean the entire line can only be run only every 15 minutes? Or will the rest of the line run at higher frequencies with only select trains continuing onto the end?
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  #139  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 8:42 PM
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No, it only means trains from the Federal Station to the Jefferson County Center will operate at 15 minute frequency. The majority of the line will operate at 5min peak/15 minute off-peak frequency. An option for an additional passing lane can reduce that further and ROW will be preserved for eventual double tracking on that final segment. RTD said they would look to upgrade that final segment, as ridership demands. First capacity upgrade would be an additional passing lane. next upgrade woudl be double tracking. This will have little or no affect on ridership and actually makes more sense, as it is more cost effective. The ridership from the Federal Center to the Jerson County Center isn't projecting to be high enough to warrant more than 15 minute frequency right now anyway.

West Corridor

Vehicle Type: Light Rail
Length (miles): 12.1
Stations: 12
Parking: 646 (existing), 5,054 (new)
Capital Cost: $635M* (final cost came in at $707.6 million)
2030 Ridership: 31,200 - 36,500
Proposed Frequency of Service (Rail):
5 min (peak)/15 min (off-peak) Denver to Federal Center
15 min (peak and off-peak) Federal Center to Jefferson County




Here's a new video I just found on youtube talking about construction on the West Corridor and other FasTracks projects:

Video Link
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Last edited by SnyderBock; Nov 15, 2009 at 12:20 AM.
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  #140  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2009, 10:35 PM
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SnyderBock, thanks for linking to the Design Phase Report. That's looking pretty hot.
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