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
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.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
^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.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
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
|