Required environmental studies of RTD’s new FasTracks train lines are already 1 1/2 to three years behind schedule, according to an analysis by the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
In addition to a call for speeding up the study process, the council of governments Monday cited “two future concerns – cost escalation and cost containment” in its review of FasTracks.
RTD still is looking for savings for the 12.1-mile west light- rail line to Lakewood and Golden, the first leg of FasTracks.
The Regional Transportation District will reduce peak-period service on the west rail line from every five minutes to every 15 minutes between the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood and the train’s planned end-of-line station at the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden.
Peak-hour service between the Federal Center and central Denver would remain at every five minutes, officials said.
In August, RTD said moving the train line to the south side of U.S. 6, between Simms and Indiana streets, will save some money, as will shortening a rail bridge over West Colfax Avenue.
The service reduction keeps cost estimates for the west train, due to open in 2012, within its FasTracks budget total of $511.8 million, RTD said.
Budget issues and delay of the environmental reviews won’t necessarily knock RTD off its construction timetable for the rail lines, DRCOG said, but “attention needs to be paid to diligently initiating remaining” studies and “pushing ongoing (environmental) studies to conclusion without further delay.”
DRCOG is required by state law to conduct an annual review of the $4.7 billion FasTracks plan, one of the largest transit expansions in the nation. The other five train lines will open between 2013 and 2016.
RTD’s studies of FasTracks trains that will operate from Denver’s Union Station to Boulder/ Longmont and in Aurora’s Interstate 225 corridor will come in three years later than originally planned, DRCOG said Monday.
Planning for the train from Union Station to Denver International Airport is two years late and studies of trains from downtown Denver to Arvada/Wheat Ridge and north Adams County are 1 1/2 years behind schedule, the council said in its report.
A variety of factors has delayed the process so far, said RTD planner Bill Van Meter, including the need to separate work on rail lines for the Boulder/Longmont and DIA routes from companion analyses of highway needs in the same corridors.
Also, DRCOG planning manager Steve Rudy said rising prices and the need to contain costs are “going to be a fact of life throughout implementation of the whole FasTracks.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
