Denver Area Light and Heavy Rail (RTD) systems

Nice.

All Aboard: RTD’s N Line Starts Rolling From Denver To Thornton – CBS Denver with a bit of video of the ribbon-cutting and the trains and action.

RTD N Line Phase 1 Bridges Denver With Thornton - Railway Age - shows the 2-mile Skyway Bridge in the line - single track.

The N line is done out to Eastlake, about 13 mi from Union Station, and a second phase will extend it 5.5 miles further with 2 more stations.

The remaining Fastracks extensions are the light-rail L Line from its current end to the A line, the light-rail Southwest Line into Highlands Ranch, and the commuter-rail B Line from Westminster to Boulder and Longmont. The latter line will likely be done by DMU instead of by EMU.

RTD Board approves updated study of Northwest Rail ‘Peak Service’ Plan, backs majority of recommendations from accountability committ | RTD - Denver

On a 12-3 vote, however, Board members sided with the notion that taxpayers in those northern communities have contributed tax dollars to the ongoing build-out of the FasTracks plan approved in 2004, and that RTD is obligated to explore whether limited service on the existing rail corridor will attract enough riders to the concept.

Money to pay for the study comes for an internal FasTracks account that was set aside for just such purposes, argued supporters of the study, and the decision to implement rail service on firmer ground with fresh data. The “Peak Service” idea calls for three trains for the morning commute and three trains for the afternoon.

Two of the three dissenters:

Dishell said the study is pointless. “We’re undertaking a study to answer questions we are already know (the answers to),” he said, with the projected ridership low and the investment expensive. RTD’s projected per-rider subsidy, Dishell added, would be 17 times higher than the existing per-rider subsidy rates.

... Lewis cited the district’s maintenance backlog as a higher priority than this study. She said other incomplete FasTracks projects also need study and work. And she argued that too much of FasTracks revenue is already spent on debt service.

It seems to me that this northwest line will use existing Denver - Boulder - Longmont tracks, and that it will likely use typical commuter-rail rolling stock, and not the EMU rolling stock of the rest of Denver's commuter-rail system. It will parallel the existing B line out to that line's ending at Westminster.

FasTracks | RTD - Denver "Future Projects":

• B LINE EXTENSION TO LONGMONT -- RTD continues to look for ways to move the rest of the Northwest Rail Line to Boulder and Longmont forward as funding becomes available.
• C D SOUTHWEST RAIL EXTENSION -- ... RTD needs to secure additional funding to complete the extension
• L CENTRAL RAIL EXTENSION -- ... RTD needs to secure additional funding to complete the extension.
• N LINE TO THORNTON -- RTD continues to look for ways to fund the remaining 5.5 miles of the N Line from Eastlake•124th State Highway 7.

One should not read too much into the wording, but from the wording, it looks as if the B and the N lines are the highest priority. Or else the B and the N lines are more difficult to fund than the southwest or central extensions.

I notice something about Denver's commuter-rail lines. They have almost no connection with the existing intercity trackage, and almost no industrial sidings or spur tracks.

That makes them much like light-rail lines.

The G line is almost entirely double-tracked, though with a single-track segment between Ralston Rd. and Balsam St.

The B line is all single-track from where it branches off of the G line at Pecos Junction.

The N line alternates between single-track and double-track, and seems to be largely single-track.

The A line is largely double-track, but has a long single-track bridge over Airport Blvd., and a single-track stretch between 61st & Pena station and a little east of E-470. The bridges in the second stretch are wide enough for two tracks, and there seems to be enough room for a second bridge span for the first stretch.

I followed the Denver - Boulder - Longmont existing line from where it branches off of the big railroad yard north of I-70.

It is single-track all the way, and it is an active railroad line. I looked at it with Google Maps, and I saw a train on it. I checked what I was doing with OpenRailwayMap, and that line is called the Front Range Subdivision, and given the color "Main Line".

The rolling stock will be diesel, either loco-hauled or DMU's. Extending the Denver-commuter electrification out to Boulder and Longmont will be too expensive to justify for a peak-time service, I'm sure. US commuter-service DMU's are mostly separated from other traffic, so they are unlikely. That leaves loco-hauled trains, and they might be too much for the amount of service. That may explain the factor of 17 extra subsidy that this line might need.

I checked on the midday frequencies of the existing commuter lines, and I found:

A: 15 min, B: 1 hr, G: 30 min, N: 30 min.

https://www.9news.com/amp/article/news/ ... db4866c00f

Guess this happens in other places besides the MNRR New Canaan end of track. That picture in the article, though:

Engineer, transit advocate questions RTD's lack of train technology after derailment

GOLDEN, Colo — The JeffCo Government Center station along RTD’s W Line will remain closed for at least two more weeks as crews work to repair damage caused by a train overshooting the platform and end of the line, derailing on Saturday.

Much of the damage to the track is to the overhead wire that drives the train, according to RTD Chief Communications Officer Stuart Summers.

It could take much longer to learn what caused the derailment. State law requires investigations into light rail crashes to be confidential, kept in secret until the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) decides whether or not to release the findings, Summers said.
...

Rail | RTD-Denver - part of it has been shut down for the Downtown Rail Reconstruction Project - Rail Project | RTD-Denver

No light rail service will operate in RTD’s central corridor through September 2024. Following completion of the project’s first phase in September, crews will pause the reconstruction work until 2025, and all light rail services will resume normal operations.

They will work on these intersections: 15th and Stout, 17th and Stout, 15th and California, 17th and California and Broadway and Welton. The next work:

Phase 2: Midblock Reconstruction in Downtown Loop
Phase 3: Colfax Avenue Alignment Reconstruction
Phase 4: Welton Street Corridor

lpetrich wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2024 2:36 am No light rail service will operate in RTD’s central corridor through September 2024. Following completion of the project’s first phase in September, crews will pause the reconstruction work until 2025, and all light rail services will resume normal operations.

Sounds like RTD and the contractor are planning not to build during the winter months. Smart call

No further news on:

• Southwest line (D) from Littleton to Lucent
• Central extension (L) from 30th+Downing to 38th+Blake (A line to airport)
• North line (N) north of Eastlake

But I have recently found an update on the Northwest line (B) to Boulder and Longmont.

Maps:

• Regional Transportation District - Wikipedia
• Rail | RTD-Denver
• FasTracks Overview and Update – DenverInfill Blog

Two of the light-rail virtual lines have been trimmed in recent years, as part of "system optimization". C (Southwest - Union Station) and F (Southeast - Downtown Loop), leaving D (Southwest - Downtown Loop, now Union Station) and E (Southeast - Union Station).

RTD still wants commuter rail from Denver to Fort Collins
noting
Securing Passenger Rail Service for Front Range Passenger Rail Phase I Along and Beyond the Northwest Rail Corridor - concept-released-for-northwest-rail-final-draft-white-paper.pdf

Fort Collins?

This is part of the Front Rage Passenger-Rail Project: Create Front Range Passenger Rail District | Colorado General Assembly and Colorado awarded initial funding for Front Range Passenger Rail Project

Albuquerque NM 0.96 M - 351 mi - Colorado Springs CO 0.755 M - 70 mi - Denver CO 2.964 M - 66 mi - Fort Collins CO 0.359 M - 45 mi - Cheyenne WY 0.065 M
(Google Maps highway distances, Wikipedia metro-area populations)

So they are proposing to extnd the B line to Fort Collins to get more funding by getting more reach.

The B line is currently electric commuter rail from Denver Union Station to Westminster, about 11 miles, and it is not likely to be extended much further than that in that form.

So there will be a parallel B line that will used diesel-hauled trains, either diesel-loco ones or DMU's. The distances:

Denver - 30 mi - Boulder - 16 mi - Longmont - 30 mi - Boulder
Total: 76 mi