Denver dazzles: in key measures, the Mile High City's light rail system is miles ahead of bigger systems

Railway Age, August, 2003 by Luther S. Miller

What's the biggest single problem facing Denver's light rail system today? Cal Marsella, general manager of the Denver Rapid Transit District (RTD), doesn't hesitate: What gives Marsella headaches is coping with success. "Stunning" and "dazzling" are among the terms that have been used to describe the Denver light rail success story. But success exceeding expectations can also be daunting.

"We have many more demands from the community than we can possibly handle within our revenue constraints," Marsella explained in an interview last month. "With the opening of the 16 miles of light rail lines that we now have, there's been a sea change in public opinion. The question is no longer if we should build it--it's when can you build it and it can't be soon enough."

The latest demonstration of light rail's pulling power came with the startup last year of a 1.8 mile downtown spur reaching major sports and entertainment venues. Known as the Central Platte Valley (CPV) Extension, it opened in April 2002, running from Auraria Campus to Union Station with intermediate stops at Invesco Field, the Pepsi Center, and Six Flags/Elitch Gardens. Private stakeholders--sports and other business interests--paid for about 8% of the line's $47.8 million cost in the form of $2.55 million in cash and $1.4 million in donated rights-of-way and casements. RTD pointed out that "fans can take the new lilac to see the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Broncos, the Colorado Crush, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rapids, and the Colorado Rockies." And take it they did. RTD reported a few weeks ago that in its first full year of operation the line recorded 1,380,000 passenger boardings, 14% above projections.

Even before this, the Denver system was posting numbers that won the attention and respect of transit planners around the country. Though it's far from being the biggest of the nation's 26 light rail systems, mile for mile it's one of the busiest. A survey by the American Public Transportation Association showed that in 2001, the latest year for which comparable figures are available, Denver's system accounted for 3% of total U.S. light rail mileage and 2.3% of the light rail vehicle fleet, but rolled up nearly 8% of all light rail vehicle revenue miles.

"The public has responded in such large numbers to our rail system that we're running high frequencies and we're running as many cars as we can," said Marsella. "It's not uncommon for us to run with one or two spare vehciles. Also, we only dose two hours a day. These factors--a long service span and high frequency service--add up to a lot of revenue miles." RTD now has 49 Siemens FT 100s in service, and 34 more are on order.

The new cars are for the $1.7-billion, 19.2-mile Southeast Light Rail Line (now known as T REX for Transportation Expansion), which is under construction. T-REX is scheduled to be completed in 2006, though the first segment will be ready in 2004. It will extend from 1-25/Broadway south along 1-25 to Lincoln Avenue in Douglas County, with a spur along 1-225 from 1-25 to Parker Road. T-REX will more than double the size of the light rail system.

Meanwhile, planning is moving along for the next major expansion, a tar-reaching regional mix of six new light rail and commuter rail lines, plus bus rapid transit and HOV (bus/carpool) lanes.

The plan is known as FasTracks, though how fast it will move in a slow economy is problematic. It carries a price tag of $4.4 billion, not including the costs of debt. To finance FasTracks, RTD plans to ask voters next year to increase the transit sales tax from six-tenths of a cent to a full penny. If tax revenues continue to sag and if the Bush Administration succeeds in reducing the federal share of new transit starts, FasTracks could be slow-ordered. Right now, neither seems likely, though another potential problem looms. If states get the authority to decide how to apportion their share of surface transportation dollars--another item on the White House wish list--money formerly earmarked for transit could be trotted over to highways.

Meanwhile, there are the ritualistic rumbles of dissent that have come to be expected from the think tanks on the right and from highway partisans in all directions. The latter argue that now is not the time to drain money from needed highway improvements. RTD's response to these and other critics is: "Every year that we wait, the plan becomes more expensive. If we wait until 2010 the plan will cost $1.2 billion mote than today."

Estimates of the cost of FasTracks in additional highway investment have rocketed as high as $5 billion. But it was disclosed last month that an analysis conducted jointly by RTD and CDOT staff found that the state could get by with a relatively modest $55 million expenditure to strengthen bridges and roads to support portions of the proposed new rail mileage

The FasTracks plan came out of comprehensive studies of eight major corridors around the Denver metro area. RTD is striving for a smooth meshing of the modes into a user-friendly system. A variable message signs and video displays will provide riders with real-time information on arrivals and park and-ride space availability.