Taxpayers in the eight-county Regional Transportation District were well served last week when the RTD board of directors unanimously voted to construct a single track on the west corridor light-rail line between the Federal Center in Lakewood and the Jefferson County government center in Golden.
The line will have two tracks all the way from Union Station in Denver to the Federal Center. Cutting back the final leg to one track will save taxpayers $36 million in construction costs while still allowing service as frequent as every 15 minutes.
As any regular bus or train rider can testify, 15-minute service is a transit luxury. Regular commuters either post a schedule or simply memorize the departure times and stroll to the station a couple minutes before the train arrives. Even newcomers arriving at random will wait just 7 1/2 minutes on average before their steel chariot arrives at the station.
But such convenience isn’t enough for the Jefferson County commissioners, who are demanding that RTD provide trains at least every 10 minutes to their offices. After the RTD directors chose the single-track line, Commissioner Kevin McCaskey said, “I cannot live with the decision.”
Well, commissioner, we suggest you learn to live with it. And while you’re at it, show a little respect for the taxpayers who, besides footing the tab for FasTracks, built the office building in question – a facility so ornate it’s universally known as the “Taj Mahal.”
Simple arithmetic shows that 10-minute service intervals would produce average wait times of five minutes – just 2 1/2 minutes shorter than the mean time for 15-minute service. Maybe McCaskey thinks his time is so valuable that taxpayers should shell out $36 million to save him 2 1/2 minutes.
Indeed, McCaskey’s demands would cost a lot more than $36 million – a sum that only covers the cost of extra tracks. Ten-minute service intervals would require six trains and six drivers an hour, versus just the four required under RTD’s plan and additional operating expenses of at least $1 million a year.
McCaskey and his colleagues argue that consultants hired by Jeffco believe there will be much more demand for train service to the county offices than RTD’s analysis predicts. But even if the outside conjurers are right and RTD’s analysts are wrong – so what?
RTD, which now has a lot of experience running light-rail lines, believes it can easily carry the initial passenger load with four of its two-car units an hour. What if by some miracle Jeffco is right and the demand is double that? Then RTD can simply attach a second two-car unit to its trains, moving 16 cars an hour to and from the Taj Mahal along the one-track line.
RTD also has assured Jeffco it will agree to specific “triggers” to upgrade service to the county government center if and when traffic warrants. Besides adding the additional cars if needed, RTD will even offer 10-minute service intervals at peak periods if necessary, by the simple expedient of building a short passing lane rather than a full two-track line.
Finally, in the unlikely event that traffic grows so robustly that it really does justify the cost, RTD will happily pay for the second track.
Taxpayers should vote for RTD’s prudence, not the Jeffco commissioners’ profligacy.
