Transit planners are recommending that the train from Union Station to Denver International Airport parallel Peña Boulevard to a point just south of the bend near Tower Road before turning east to serve the High Point commercial development.
The diversion along East 72nd Avenue through High Point will only add a minute and a half to an alternate Union Station-DIA route that would have stayed in the Peña corridor, RTD official Mike Turner told Denver City Council members Monday.
The recommended route will allow RTD to have a train station near 64th Avenue and Peña Boulevard and one on 72nd Avenue in High Point, Turner said.
It will add about $3.3 million to the train line’s budget, and RTD said it would work with Denver, Aurora and High Point’s developers “to resolve the differential.”
An earlier alignment of the airport train that also was going to serve High Point would bloat the airport train’s budget by $60 million, in part because it added more time to the trip and required the purchase of more rail cars.
Officials want DIA patrons to be able to travel between the airport and Union Station in about 30 minutes, said Rick Busch, DIA’s chief planner.
The DIA train is expected to cost about $702 million and is set for completion in eight years.
The train is planned to enter DIA at Level One on the south end of the terminal, and passengers will be ferried by escalators and elevators to ticket counters and security screening.
Busch said DIA officials are studying the possible southward expansion of the terminal to coincide with construction of the train line.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
