The Air Train that will link downtown Denver and the airport will be diesel-powered commuter rail, not electrified light rail.
Officials have been studying both technologies, but on Wednesday, transportation planners said light rail has too many “fatal flaws” and is not a realistic option for RTD’s train line to Denver International Airport.
The train line will be built as part of the Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks expansion. Construction of the 24-mile line is to start in 2011 and be finished by the end of 2014.
The selection of commuter rail will likely mean the DIA line will have up to four fewer stations than the light-rail version.
The study earlier had identified 12 stops for light rail and eight for commuter rail.
Since the heavier commuter-rail cars are slower to accelerate and decelerate than light-rail vehicles, it is not practical to have the diesel-powered trains stop at as many stations, said Mike Turner, RTD’s representative on the rail study. The travel time would get too long.
Among the extra stations that the light-rail alternative considered were those near the intersections of Chambers and Smith roads, Monaco Parkway and Smith, and 33rd and Blake streets near Coors Field.
Planners will solicit public comment on whether these, or any other locations, should be added as commuter rail stations, said R.A. Plummer, project manager for the study.
Owners of the High Point residential and commercial development near DIA have lobbied hard for a rail station in their project near East 68th Avenue and Tower Road, regardless of the technology chosen.
“We will have about … 30,000 to 40,000 people working in the area, and it would be shortsighted not to have a station,” said Ray Pittman, the developer.
Additional stations were among the reasons that light rail was going to cost about $250 million more than commuter rail, Plummer said.
One strenuous objection to light rail came from the Union Pacific Railroad, which said it would not allow RTD to run light-rail cars on tracks adjacent to those used by the railroad’s heavy freight trains along Smith Road to Peña Boulevard.
Commuter-rail vehicles weigh between 120,000 and 215,000 pounds apiece and have stronger frames than light-rail cars, which weigh about 80,000 pounds, RTD’s Turner said.
“It’s the difference between a Volvo and a Geo Metro,” he said.
The fear is that light-rail riders would face a greater chance of death or injury than those on a heavier commuter-rail car if a derailment caused a DIA train and a freight train to collide.
RTD’s FasTracks budget has about $700 million earmarked for the DIA train, but that sum is for commuter rail; officials had not identified money needed to switch to light rail.
Since there will be commuter rail to Boulder/Longmont, a railcar maintenance facility had been considered for Boulder. The DIA commuter line means the facility will instead be located in central Denver.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
