For the FasTracks program to stay on schedule and deliver what was promised to area voters, it will need $1.22 billion in federal grants, about $400 million more than anticipated just three years ago.
On Saturday, Regional Transportation District officials briefed agency board members on how RTD can make up for a $1.5 billion shortfall in paying for FasTracks transit expansion.
RTD blames the money gap on rising costs of construction materials and design changes to the program, which was to cost $4.7 billion and now is priced at $6.2 billion.
To help get FasTracks back on budget, RTD is proposing to sell $3.2 billion in sales-tax bonds, $800 million more than originally planned, said agency general manager Cal Marsella. The bonds are paid off with proceeds from an RTD sales-tax increase that metro Denver voters approved in November 2004.
Marsella described other elements of RTD’s rejiggered financial forecast but offered little in the way of detailed documentation for the new estimates.
RTD director Neill Quinlan bored in on Marsella about earlier, rosy reviews of FasTracks finances done by consultants that Quinlan referred to as “clowns.”
“No one could have foreseen this coming,” Marsella responded, referring to the dramatic increase in the cost of construction materials.
Director Bill Christopher asked why RTD’s professional staff still recommends operating electric commuter trains on the east line to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada/Wheat Ridge when the agency could save money initially by operating diesel trains instead.
Christopher directed the staff to come back with more information on the issue. Two other FasTracks routes – the Northwest line to Boulder/Longmont and the North Metro line to Adams County – are expected to use diesel trains, and some directors said it makes sense to stick with one technology for commuter rail.
Wally Pulliam, another director, questioned why the west corridor light-rail budget is being squeezed by cost cuts while the estimated price to build the DIA train has bloated to $1.14 billion from an earlier estimate of $702 million.
“I look at another corridor not being hammered to hold to its budget,” he said.
Officials said the new price tag for the DIA train does not include any stations between the airport terminal and RTD’s park-n-Ride lot at East 40th Avenue and Airport Boulevard, just north of Interstate 70.
Acting Federal Transit Administration regional chief Terry Rosapep said it is too early to know if RTD’s request for a 50 percent increase in federal funding for FasTracks will get a favorable response in Washington.
Even if it gets the extra federal money, RTD still will need an additional $670 million in savings from farming out some combination of financing, building and operating FasTracks rail lines to private companies, Marsella said.
In so-called public-private partnerships, teams of private companies bid to finance, construct and operate transportation projects under long-term lease arrangements.
One way a private group can achieve savings for FasTracks would be to extend the payback of debt to 40 or 50 years instead of the 30-year repayment schedule that RTD assumed, Marsella said.
Construction arrangements used by private firms should allow them to design and build rail lines more cheaply than RTD, and private groups’ flexibility to hire and manage employees should yield savings, as well, according to RTD.
Next month, RTD is expected to hire financial specialists to advise the agency on soliciting offers from private groups. It will take about nine months to learn if public-private partnerships are a way to resolve the FasTracks budget deficit, officials said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
