There will be no train service between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the Northwest commuter rail line between Union Station and Longmont unless RTD can come up with an extra $45 million to double-track the Boulder-Longmont segment, a senior agency official said Tuesday night.
Even the Denver-Boulder segment, which RTD is spending more than $200 million to double-track, would be without rail service during those four midday hours. Riders would be carried on buses, RTD said.
Marla Lien, the Regional Transportation District’s general counsel and one of its principal negotiators in talks with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, said the freight carrier told RTD it needs the 10 a.m.-to-2 p.m. slot for its own freight trains and track maintenance work unless the entire route is double-tracked, including the Boulder-Longmont run.
BNSF owns and operates a freight route on a single track between a point near Pecos Street and Interstate 76 and Longmont.
The FasTracks transit expansion plan approved by metro Denver voters in 2004 called for RTD and BNSF to share track between Denver and Longmont and it included money for double-tracking the Denver-Boulder portion of the line but not the Boulder-Longmont segment, said RTD general manager Cal Marsella.
The cost for the 41-mile Northwest train already has jumped to $684 million from an estimate of $565 million in 2004. The cost of the entire FasTracks program, which includes six new train lines, has ballooned to $6.1 billion from the original $4.7 billion.
When Marsella was asked why RTD would build a second track for the Northwest line from Denver to Boulder only to be denied train service at the critical midday period, he said, “I’m not comfortable with that operational scenario.”
He said RTD will explore ways of raising the extra $45 million for double-tracking the Longmont segment. Options include developing a “public-private partnership” or using tax-increment financing that would be connected to expected commercial development along the route, Marsella said.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
