The federal government has chosen two FasTracks rail lines to be part of a program promoting the role of private companies in building and operating public transit.
The Regional Transportation District was one of three transit agencies in the country chosen for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Public-Private Partnership Pilot Program.
Houston and San Francisco transit agencies also were tapped for the pilot.
RTD’s planned Denver International Airport and Gold Line trains were selected for the program, also known as Penta-P.
The decision could help bail the FasTracks program out of its $1.5 billion financial hole by speeding the flow of federal money and streamlining regulatory approvals for the DIA and Gold Line trains.
RTD hopes to get more than $500 million from the Federal Transit Administration to assist in construction of the two rail lines.
The Gold Line will run from Union Station to Arvada and Wheat Ridge.
“Projects selected by FTA will benefit from a simplified and accelerated review process designed to reduce the time and cost associated with the federal funding process,” said RTD planning chief Liz Rao.
RTD needs federal help in corralling its spiraling FasTracks costs and keeping the project – the nation’s most ambitious expansion of public transit – on schedule.
The agency recently said the expected cost of FasTracks had ballooned to $6.2 billion from an original estimate of $4.7 billion.
RTD officials blame the financial woes largely on higher-than-predicted construction costs and lower-than-anticipated sales tax revenues.
Penta P will allow the federal Department of Transportation to study whether public- private partnerships can speed transit projects, while saving money and ensuring quality construction and operation, the federal agency said Monday in announcing RTD’s selection.
Breaking new ground
Public-private partnerships have almost no track record in transit construction in the United States, and some RTD board members have questioned what will happen if private contractors fail to complete a project.
Answering those concerns, RTD General Manager Cal Marsella said private interests won’t be paid for a rail line until it is completed.
In 2004, metro Denver voters approved increasing RTD’s sales tax from 0.6 percent to 1 percent to pay for the bulk of FasTracks, which includes construction of six new rail lines in the Denver area.
In May, Marsella said his agency hoped to get as much as $670 million in savings for the project by farming out all or a portion of the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of key rail lines to private firms.
RTD will seek private companies to participate in building, and possibly operating, the DIA and Gold Line trains as a single package.
Last week, RTD’s board selected electric rail as the technology for the DIA and Gold Line commuter trains.
The airport line is due for completion by the end of 2014 and the Gold Line by the end of 2015.
“We’re very excited about this innovative approach to work with FTA on the delivery of FasTracks within the general scope, time frame and financial capacity passed by voters in 2004,” Rao said about the new federal pilot.
“They’re interested in seeing how this type of model works,” she said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
