Denver Union Station & FasTracks

[SnyderBock]

Probably because of the zoom feature the webcam site uses.
Here is another link you may want to take a look at:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=183489

[SnyderBock]

Underground Bus Terminal & Pedestrian Concourse


http://denverinfill.com/blog/


http://denverinfill.com/blog/


http://denverinfill.com/blog/


http://denverinfill.com/blog/


http://denverinfill.com/blog/


http://denverinfill.com/blog/

[SnyderBock]

Denver Union Station Featured on the Travel Channel's, "Off Limits"

Video Link

[SnyderBock]

West Corridor Light Rail Line Update: From Denver Urbanism.com

Knox Station:

Courtesy: Denverurbanism.com


Courtesy: Denverurbanism.com


Courtesy: Denverurbanism.com


Courtesy: Denverurbanism.com


Courtesy: Denverurbanism.com


Courtesy: Denverurbanism.com

[eleven=11]

thats kinda cool how close the homes are to the station.
is it a one min walk??

[SnyderBock]

A good portion of the West LRT runs down an abandoned streetcar line. Denver's other LRT lines so far, have either run along railroad ROW, along highway ROW or even along-side City Street ROW.

With the West LRT using abandoned streetcar ROW, it cuts right through the urban fabric, separably from streets and highways (at least for the half of the line which uses streetcar ROW).

Denver once had something like 300 miles of streetcars, which was more than any city west of the Mississippi River (at the time), other than San Francisco.

[ardecila]

Woah. Talk about transit-oriented development.

[eleven=11]

when does google update the maps?
i tried bing maps/45 view?
can anybody recomend a better/new map...

[Octavian]

A great overview of the project:

http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/20...ormickLinchpin

The $500 million multimodal hub project, involving five public/private partners and nine financing sources, is two-thirds finished and on schedule for completion in April 2014. Redevelopment of the station and the new neighborhood around it is projected to create thousands of jobs and boost the Colorado economy by $3 billion through 2020, according to Governor John Hickenlooper, a former mayor of Denver.

Kiewit Western Company began project construction in May 2009. Today, a new light-rail station and plaza are open on the site, and a local and regional bus facility is under construction. And the nearly 40 acres (16 ha) of land available for development on and around the transit site are creating the hottest downtown real estate market seen in Denver in decades.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by SnyderBock

A good portion of the West LRT runs down an abandoned streetcar line. Denver's other LRT lines so far, have either run along railroad ROW, along highway ROW or even along-side City Street ROW.

With the West LRT using abandoned streetcar ROW, it cuts right through the urban fabric, separably from streets and highways (at least for the half of the line which uses streetcar ROW).

Denver once had something like 300 miles of streetcars, which was more than any city west of the Mississippi River (at the time), other than San Francisco.

oh you denver folks and your west of the mississippi claims.

kansas city had at least as much streetcar milage as denver, of course it was larger.

[ardecila]

Pretty much every large city claims to have had the largest network. Usually the claim only holds up if you're talking about the largest network in the respective state.

The question is really muddied because of the complicated relationship between urban streetcar and interurban rail systems, which were often controlled by the same set of traction companies and used the same tracks within cities. There were whole sets of interurban lines crisscrossing the Midwest, entirely separate from mainline railroads.

[waltlantz]

Dude, is that house abandoned or something?

I can't imagine people writing off on a rail system running so close to a house in this day and age! Amazing.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

Dude, is that house abandoned or something?

I can't imagine people writing off on a rail system running so close to a house in this day and age! Amazing.

It looks refurbished...

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

Dude, is that house abandoned or something?

I can't imagine people writing off on a rail system running so close to a house in this day and age! Amazing.

They're poor people, nobody asked their opinion.

[Cirrus]

It's going to be awesome for their property value. Whoever lives there will get 10 unsolicited purchase offers a month.

Yeah yeah yeah, it's too close for a lot of people, maybe even most people, but there's going to be some segment of the population that will love it, and will pay for such a novelty.

[Cirrus]

PS: Imagine the lemonade stand the children in that house will run from the patio.

Then, approximately 10 minutes later, someone will get the bright idea to sell coffee from that window, and we'll have the most entertaining zoning fight in history on our hands.

[bunt_q]

Oh I would so buy that house. My hesitation would be the neighborhood, the projects a block away, the high tension power lines...not the train. That's about as close to ghetto as Denver gets (and it won't get better, train or no train, because the housing stock is total unsalvageable crap; bad bones).

For reference, a 3 bed 1 bath house a half block from the next station just sold for $52k. Now that's scary. Two more a block from this station around $60k. We're talking the little 1930 dilapidated 800 sf stick boxes.

[SnyderBock]

A new push for reaching Longmont via North Corridor, instead of NW Corridor, to avoid the astronomical increases in cost being slapped at RTD by BNSF:

North rail line gains Longmont support
By Dallas Heltzell October 12, 2012

LONGMONT – New attention is being given to a proposal to bring commuter rail to Longmont sooner and less expensive.

The Longmont City Council voted 7-0 on Oct. 2 to recommend that the Regional Transportation District extend a FasTracks line to Longmont via a route that would bypass Boulder — but also bypass the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway’s steep cost for right-of-way.

The council’s resolution attached two caveats. It wants the new rail idea to come with no additional tax increase, and it wants RTD to consider improving bus service to and from Longmont along the Interstate 25, U.S. Highway 287 and Colorado Highway 119 (Diagonal Highway) corridors.

RTD’s current FasTracks plan includes an 18-mile rail line which would stretch north from downtown Denver and run parallel to I-25 through Thornton and Northglenn to 162nd Street. If that line were to be extended to Longmont, it would have to pass through Weld County, which is not part of the transportation district. However, some Denver-to-Longmont regional express bus routes already run through Weld.

In the original FasTracks plan, Longmont was to be reached by commuter rail via a 41-mile northwest line running from downtown Denver along the U.S. Highway 36 corridor, then north along the eastern edge of Boulder and northeast to Longmont along existing BNSF tracks which parallel the Diagonal Highway. When the FasTracks tax issue first went to voters in 2004, BNSF told RTD the cost for using its tracks between Westminster and Longmont would be around $66 million. However, at a meeting in October 2011 in Chicago, BNSF told RTD it wanted $535 million – up front.

That stunning news and other cost issues, coupled with a severe economic slump, pushed RTD’s timeline for completion of the line from 2016 back to as late as 2044, and the total estimated cost from $461 million to at least $1.7 billion...

Continue Reading Here: http://www.bcbr.com/article/20121012...mentscontainer

Several months ago, before this was even being considered, I drew up a plan which basically proposes exactly what they will study now. Commuter rail to Longmont via an extension of the North Corridor and then an expanded BRT network hubbed out of Boulder.

[llamaorama]

That house is so awesome, looks like something in Japan. I love it when transit lines weave through neighborhoods with no problem.

But no really, I wonder if RTD owns it or if it's going to be torn down eventually.

[CastleScott]

Quote:
North rail line gains Longmont support
By Dallas Heltzell October 12, 2012

LONGMONT – New attention is being given to a proposal to bring commuter rail to Longmont sooner and less expensive.

The Longmont City Council voted 7-0 on Oct. 2 to recommend that the Regional Transportation District extend a FasTracks line to Longmont via a route that would bypass Boulder — but also bypass the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway’s steep cost for right-of-way.

The council’s resolution attached two caveats. It wants the new rail idea to come with no additional tax increase, and it wants RTD to consider improving bus service to and from Longmont along the Interstate 25, U.S. Highway 287 and Colorado Highway 119 (Diagonal Highway) corridors.

RTD’s current FasTracks plan includes an 18-mile rail line which would stretch north from downtown Denver and run parallel to I-25 through Thornton and Northglenn to 162nd Street. If that line were to be extended to Longmont, it would have to pass through Weld County, which is not part of the transportation district. However, some Denver-to-Longmont regional express bus routes already run through Weld.

In the original FasTracks plan, Longmont was to be reached by commuter rail via a 41-mile northwest line running from downtown Denver along the U.S. Highway 36 corridor, then north along the eastern edge of Boulder and northeast to Longmont along existing BNSF tracks which parallel the Diagonal Highway. When the FasTracks tax issue first went to voters in 2004, BNSF told RTD the cost for using its tracks between Westminster and Longmont would be around $66 million. However, at a meeting in October 2011 in Chicago, BNSF told RTD it wanted $535 million – up front.

That stunning news and other cost issues, coupled with a severe economic slump, pushed RTD’s timeline for completion of the line from 2016 back to as late as 2044, and the total estimated cost from $461 million to at least $1.7 billion...

Continue Reading Here: http://www.bcbr.com/article/20121012...mentscontainer

Interesting! I recall an old Union Pacific line that once served coal mines back in the 30s to around the early 50s that crossed I-25 on an overpass just north of the Erie exit until the bridge was removed around 2001. Theres also an old Burlington Northern ROW that went from just south of Erie to Longmont that was taken out of service around 1974 (this ran about 3 or 4 miles east of Hwy 287 through rural farmlands), I know this since I was on the Colorado Rail Advisory Committee which was part of CDOT from the mid 90s to 2000.