Owens and FasTracks
Owens Right to Oppose FasTracks
By Daniel G. Jennings
Gov. Bill Owens is doing the right thing by opposing RTD?fs ambitious $4.5 billion FasTracks scheme for transit expansion financed by a sales tax increase. Owens is absolutely right when he notes that the plan would increase taxation while not noticeably decreasing traffic congestion on regional highways.
Owens attack on FasTracks is not the standard anti-transit propaganda it is based on a sober assessment of the proposal. Owens is right: FasTracks will cost too much and deliver too little in the form of transit. Sadly, Owens isn?ft tough enough on FasTracks. Here are a few of the dismal details about FasTracks:
?? Fastracks does not mean extension of RTD?fs popular and successful light rail to the entire Metro Area as its supporters are insinuating in very deceptive advertising. Instead FasTracks would provide new light rail lines to Arvada and Lakewood and extension of the T-Rex and Southwest corridor lines. Other areas including Boulder, Northglenn, Thornton and Westminister would be served by diesel powered commuter rail or bus rapid transit.
?? The diesel powered commuter rail wouldn?ft be as fast or as frequent as light rail. It would run on old freight railroad tracks. Diesel trains would pollute the air unlike light rail and would require more maintenance. They would also be noisier.
??Worse it would greatly increase maintenance and operations costs because those trains would require a second rail yard with a second set of maintenance employees. This would duplicate costs.
?? Diesel trains operating at high speed on old freight railroad tracks would cross streets on the surface level at many locations. This would lead to accidents between cars and trains and needless deaths and injuries.
??Since the diesel trains couldn?ft operate on light rail tracks and visa versa. Commuters would have to switch trains at Union Station. This would greatly increase travel time, make trips more inconvenient and discourage ridership. RTD itself admits that switching trains at Union Station would create massive congestion downtown. The trip between say Northglenn and the Tech Center would on FasTracks $4.5 billion rail system would take about the same amount of time as the same trip on our existing bus system.
??RTD is setting itself up for lawsuits and political criticism. It?fs planning to build light rail to affluent white suburbs but diesel trains to working class largely Hispanic areas up north and out east. Blacks in Northeast Denver and Hispanics in Commerce City would have to put up with the noise and fumes from the diesel trains and see more traffic congestion in their neighborhoods created by trains crossing streets. They would also have to put up with safety threats posed by those trains at surface level crossings.
?? RTD plans to spend around $1 billion to refurbish Union Station into a transit hub in Lower Downtown. This wouldn?ft help commuters, it would actually hurt them by making trips longer and less convenient. It would make life for Downtown residents less pleasant by generating massive amounts of needless congestion. It would only benefit real estate developers, including Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Billionaire Phil Anschutz who own property in the area. $1 billion would be enough to build another light rail line to the suburbs. Bypassing downtown with light rail lines running along I-70, I-25 or the old freight railroad tracks would make more sense. Especially since the majority of the commuters changing trains downtown wouldn?ft be going downtown.
??RTD plans another wasteful duplication in its service to Boulder. Boulder would be served by two different Transit lines a bus line running along the Denver-Boulder Turnpike and a diesel train running along an old freight rail line between Denver and Boulder. Boulder will get two new transit lines as many other areas get little or nothing.
??Most of the metro area would not be served by FasTracks, fast growing outlying areas like Brighton, Evergreen, Conifer, and Lochbuie would get no service. So would such popular destinations in the city such as Cherry Creek. The new high density developments at Lowry and Villa Italia would not be served. So would the already developed areas along Hampden in the Southwest area and the congested C-470 corridor. People in places like Ken Caryl and Lowry would essentially be left high and dry by FasTracks even though they would pay higher taxes to finance it.
If all this wasn?ft bad enough Owens had proposed an excellent alternative to FasTracks, more T-Rex type lines that would combine freeway expansion with new light rail lines but RTD shot it down. This plan would have been cheaper, requiring a lower sales tax increase and those lines could be under construction right now. It will take nearly twenty years to complete FasTracks. Many areas including Aurora wouldn?ft see new rail lines until 2018 under some RTD plans. Had RTD gone with Owens?f suggestions we could be seeing major new rail lines to the North and West opening in the next few years.
RTD refused to go along with Owens even though voters did go for T-Rex in a big way in 1999 and have voted down proposals similar to FasTracks before (remember ?gGuide the Ride?h). Fortunately Owens is showing the kind of leadership that other metro area politicos have not. By refusing to jump on the FasTracks bandwagon, Owens can come out next year after it is voted down, dust off his expanded T-Rex and put it before voters. Then that will pass, giving Denver the transit it needs and ensure Owens place in Colorado history.
Thank God for Bill Owens, he hasn?ft been the best governor but at least he?fs on the right track when it comes to transportation issues.