Denver Union Station & FasTracks

[SnyderBock]

Here are some current renderings for the Denver Union Station project:

[llamaorama]

looks great, I like the pedestrian plaza over the tracks that empties onto the platform. Can't wait for all this to build out.

Only thing is why is there a hole in the roof of the train shed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

[mr1138]

From what I've heard, it is because it's a concept rendering. They have a hole in the roof to show the trains. The final design will cover the top.

[SnyderBock]

Actually, that's pretty close to what's getting built. There is a view plain ordinance... Historical Union Station must be visible from the entire 17th Street transit plaza.

But if you study the plans back on page one of this post, you will eventually discover that large amounts of the platforms are still covered. In those first two renderings I just posted, to the right of the canopy, that is actually an elevated pedestrian platform--thus the train platforms are covered by it. Then the platforms continue under that building further to the right (especially the 1600 foot long AmTrak platform).

So even though there is a gapping hole in the middle, they claim something like 80% of the train platform area will be covered. The middle is left open so Union Station is not obscured from view. It is a historical landmark with a special view plain ordinance, so it cannot be avoided.

[jamesinclair]

Originally Posted by SnyderBock

Actually, that's pretty close to what's getting built. There is a view plain ordinance... Historical Union Station must be visible from the entire 17th Street transit plaza.

But if you study the plans back on page one of this post, you will eventually discover that large amounts of the platforms are still covered. In those first two renderings I just posted, to the right of the canopy, that is actually an elevated pedestrian platform--thus the train platforms are covered by it. Then the platforms continue under that building further to the right (especially the 1600 foot long AmTrak platform).

So even though there is a gapping hole in the middle, they claim something like 80% of the train platform area will be covered. The middle is left open so Union Station is not obscured from view. It is a historical landmark with a special view plain ordinance, so it cannot be avoided.

Thats....retarded

[mr1138]

I don't see why a hole in the roof is needed to protect the view plane. The canopy comes around in front of the neon sign in two places and yet, if the rendering looking down 17th is to be believed, doesn't block the view plane. I don't see why it couldn't cover the entire platform and just "dip down" to protect the view. I thought I had heard that the renderings showed a hole simply to show a cut away view in conceptual renderings and that the final version would cover the whole thing.

[BroncosCountry]

Originally Posted by SnyderBock

Ridership up^

That works out to roughly 276,000 daily riders. Way to go RTD! Think of how high our numbers will be when Fastracks is all done!

[Cirrus]

^
IIRC, the combined projected ridership of all the rail lines was something like 200-250k.

Some of those FasTracks riders will be existing bus users (not to mention existing LRT), so you can't just double the bus ridership, but still, I think it's fair to guess RTD will be around 400k daily riders once FasTracks is done. And it will go up from there over time.

[PLANSIT]

^How does that compare to other metros?

[Cirrus]

It would vault Denver to the top of the second tier.

That is to say, ahead of places like Dallas, Miami, and even Portland (by rail, if not rail+bus), but still well behind the Washingtons and Chicagos of the world.

New York isn't so much another "tier" as it is another universe.

[SnyderBock]

Well, Denver will be a metro area of roughly 3.2 million in 2018. So if daily ridership starts out at 400,000 people upon FasTracks completion, then climbs upward from there; I would say that is exceptional for a medium sized US city.

[SnyderBock]

Here are the latest depictions of Union Station:







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Union Station Front South Side:




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Union Station Front North Side:








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Elevated Platform:








Train Room:


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Back of Union Station (Wewatta Plaza):




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17th Street Transit Plaza:






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Light Rail Terminal (Opposite end from Union Station):


The Whole Picture:








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Schedule:


Circulator Bus:


Underground Circulator Bus:


The Underground Portion (Under 17th Street) Connecting Union Station with Light Rail terminal:

[SnyderBock]

Here is a new report issued with much more detailed engineering. Union Station development gets underway later this year.

New detailed report with high quality renderings

Here is a glimpse of what's in this pdf, click on it and take a look at what Denver Union Station will look like and function like by 2014:

[pablosan]

I actually like those concepts.

[Okstate]

Jealous.

[zilfondel]

Holy ****

Are these just for commuter trains, or long distance... I didn't think you guys had many Amtrak intercity trains??

[Cirrus]

There are some Amtrak trains (plus one to the ski resorts), but they are pretty limited. For the most part this is for local service.

[SnyderBock]

If you are interested in this, here is my idea for an inner-city Denver Streetcar system to be built after this suburban system being built now is complete. I actually show it in phases. Dark blue is phase 1. Light Blue is phase 2. Pink is phase 3. Green is what will be built with FasTracks.

I have Civic Center Station serving as the Streetcar Hub. Phase one is all about rebuilding Civic Center Station into a new hub station with the capacity to handle my plan, and connecting it directly with Union Station. I have this Civic center-Union Station line as a possible subway line (as it will be very high capacity, with multiple converging streetcar lines all sharing it. It would stub end below grade in front of Union Station and the escalators would come up directly into the historic Union Station.

After this infrastructure is put in place, the streetcar lines can start growing out from Civic Center Station, in a series of phases.

Now on the Northwest side of Union Station, I have the streetcar lines coming in from the north, right into the Light Rail Terminal proposed for Union Station. Since I am proposing modern streetcars, which are actually just single car light rail vehicles, they would actually be compatible with existing light rail tracks, stations and maintenance facilities. So from Highlands, the streetcar line would travel down Platte Street, cross over the river at 20th Street and come in along the CML into an extended LRT Terminal at Union Station.

Here is the plan, check it out!


And here is how I propose the subway portion of this proposal (~1 mile subway portion) from Civic center Station to Denver Union Station be integrated into Denver Union Station. The pedestrian access to and from the subway platforms would go directly into the Historic Union Station building! As seen on the left side, coming up into the station building (the right side the the Union Station plan being built now for other lines underway).

[ardecila]

This is truly the kind of stuff that European cities seem to be building on a regular basis, but that Americans haven't even begun to think about.

Kudos to Denver for such an ambitious and AMAZING plan. The shorter size of the office/residential buildings will make them a lot more feasible, since they cost a lot less than skyscrapers. I've long thought that the proclivity of American cities toward ever-taller skyscrapers only harms the streetscape, because skyscrapers tend to satisfy market demand in large amounts at a time, which leaves lots of building sites open as parking lots or vacant lots.

[Pizzuti]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I've long thought that the proclivity of American cities toward ever-taller skyscrapers only harms the streetscape, because skyscrapers tend to satisfy market demand in large amounts at a time, which leaves lots of building sites open as parking lots or vacant lots.

Hence all the surface parking lots that practically ruined downtown Denver for 2 decades and to this day make some near-downtown neighborhoods (Arapahoe Square) so ugly that no one wants to move there.