FasTracks Expansion in Denver
In a bit of an odd news item, the Denver RTD trumpeted that they were ripping up (old) tracks as the kick-off to their huge FasTracks multi-line expansion program. They are planning on extending and building new light rail, commuter rail, and even a BRT line. The whole thing has a budget of about $5.1B, which seems reasonable given the scope of what they are building, although I've only looked at it briefly.
Having looked at some promotional info on the existing light rail system (but admittedly never having been to Denver) - I wonder if they are going to be building more light rail lines along the center of highways, which is one of the strangest deal-with-the-devil compromises that transit operators make. Yes, the right-of-way is cheap, but you end up with a mode that is supposed to be pedestrian friendly being put in the most pedestrian-unfriendly place ever, and generally in walking distance from nothing - except the huge park-n-ride lots which surround the stations. I suppose Denver's light rail is helping reduce car trips, but is it really just enabling sprawl, by allowing people to live further out from the city, drive to a convenient park-n-ride, and make that last bit of trip on a comfy light rail, while doing what exactly for the close in communities?
Of course, this is mostly conjecture. At least, except for the part about the center of the highway being a strange place to put light rail.
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csa | 6:32 PM |
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The line you refer to in Denver is actually not in the center of the highway (with the exception of a 2 mile offshoot on the i-225 branch). So is much more "friendly" than you might think, although your point has some valididity as it is adjacent to the highway. Ironically a portion that was supposed to go through a neigborhood was driven out by that same neighborhood. Fortunately almost all the stations are generating TOD development which helps overcome some of the problem of being adjacent to a highway. I think the next light rail line which will have a parallel bike path along an old railroad right-of-way will be much more interesting in many ways. However, it will be signifigantly slower.
I like this site, but the RSS feed is useless--it only has the first line of the article. This makes reading from RSS readers very frustrating.
