Residents of northwest Denver, Arvada and Adams County told transit planners Wednesday night that RTD should stick to its original plan of running Gold Line trains in existing freight-rail corridors.
When metro Denver voters approved the Regional Transportation District’s $4.7 billion FasTracks transit plan in November 2004, transit officials laid out specific alignments, such as the Gold Line’s route in freight-rail corridors from Union Station in Denver to Ward Road.
“This is a bait-and-switch,” resident Gloria Rudden said of new alternatives that might run light-rail cars or streetcars down neighborhood streets.
Rudden lives near West 52nd Avenue and Tennyson Street and might have light-rail or streetcars clanging in the street near her home if an alternate route is chosen.
If planners want to change that route, they should “go to the ballot again,” Rudden told officials at a Gold Line planning meeting at the Arvada Center.
Consultants in charge of a $5.4 million study of Gold Line options said Union Pacific Railroad has vetoed light-rail cars operating in its freight corridor because they don’t meet federal crash-test standards.
BNSF Railroad is expected to take a similar position.
Other Gold Line routes under consideration might put light-rail cars or streetcars on West 38th Avenue, Lowell Boulevard, West 52nd Avenue, Ralston Road and Ridge Road.
Some of these options would use eminent domain to take at least 80 properties from area residents.
If planners select heavier electrified or diesel commuter rail for the Gold Line, it would meet the freight railroads’ safety requirements and allow RTD trains to run next to freight trains, said Cal Marsella, RTD’s general manager.
Commuter rail in the freight corridor would require the taking of 18 properties, most of them commercial.
Marsella defended the process of looking at all options for the Gold Line, claiming it is essential if RTD is to bid for federal money.
A decision is scheduled for early next year.
Arvada resident Michael Layer lobbied strongly against the in-street option for light rail.
“Eighty property acquisitions is unacceptable to me,” he said. “If we cannot stick to what we originally voted on, we should vote again. I don’t want to lose my home.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
