To raise the full $7.9 billion needed to build all FasTracks rail lines by 2017, RTD would need to tack between 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points more to the 1 percent sales-and-use tax it already collects in metro Denver.
That was one of the options Regional Transportation District planners presented to agency directors Tuesday night for keeping the nation’s largest transit expansion moving forward.
Directors again were told that RTD must stay on schedule for fully constructing the West light-rail line to Golden, the East line to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada/Wheat Ridge by 2017 or risk losing as much as $1.3 billion in Federal Transit Administration money for the three lines.
For the planned Northwest train to Boulder/Longmont, the North Metro commuter line to north Adams County and the I-225 light rail in Aurora, directors were offered a number of alternatives if more dollars can’t be raised for FasTracks. They included:
• Select only one of the lines for completion by 2017.
• Build limited portions of the Northwest, North Metro and I-225 lines by 2017 with available funds, possibly extending them later if and when more money becomes available.
• Build longer segments of Northwest, North Metro and I-225 by 2017 largely by cutting back to single-track operations from double-track. Such a move would mean longer wait times between trains in some cases — 30-minute frequencies at rush hour.
Single-tracking might allow RTD to extend the Northwest line to U.S. 36 and Church Ranch Boulevard, North Metro to 112th Avenue and the I-225 to the 13th Avenue station from Aurora City Center, officials told directors.
“I’m shocked,” said RTD director Bill Christopher, after assessing the option of extending the lines by single-tracking.
“I’m amazed we did not get further up each corridor than we did,” said Christopher, who represents communities especially served by the Northwest rail corridor.
“I’m madder than hell,” RTD director and former Thornton mayor Noel Busck said of options offering curtailed service in his district while other FasTracks lines will be built out in full.
But Busck said residents in his area may still be persuaded to accept “half a loaf” if they have the promise of getting their full line later on.
Beginning Thursday, RTD will hold 16 public meetings throughout metro Denver over the next month to get citizen feedback on the various options for salvaging FasTracks.
After weighing community input, RTD’s directors early next year will select an option for proceeding with FasTracks.
Director Neill Quinlan said the agency should consider privatizing more of its existing transit system, including light-rail operations, to try to save money for FasTracks. The district already contracts out about half of its bus and van service to private companies.
Contracting out light rail would require a change in RTD’s contract with its union, General Manager Cal Marsella told Quinlan.
Director Bill McMullen said RTD should offer area residents another alternative besides raising more money for FasTracks, building only what can be afforded by 2017 or possibly extending full construction of some lines past that date.
Claiming FasTracks now is a “radical change” from what was promised to voters four years ago when they approved a 0.4 percent sales tax to fund the project, McMullen said, “We have an obligation to ask the public, ‘Maybe you’d like none of it.’ ”
If given that choice, McMullen said he expects most area residents will want the program saved in some form.
“I don’t have a real good feel where the public is,” Marsella said, adding that RTD needs feedback from broad segments of the community to guide the future of FasTracks.
“News about the national economic meltdown is not going to help us,” he said.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, RTD directors considered new proposed changes to the business Eco Pass program that may become part of an across-the-board fare increase in January.
The program gives employers the option of buying transit passes for all their employees at deeply discounted prices.
Some RTD officials say the agency has priced Eco Pass too low and users of the program are not paying their fair share.
Currently, an employer with 10 employees or less can buy Eco Passes for all 10 for the price of just one annual pass, Marsella told directors.
RTD is proposing to raise the Eco Pass price for such an employer to that equal to the cost of three annual passes in 2009 and four passes in 2010, Marsella said.
Proposed increases will triple the cost to employers of the business Eco Pass in many cases, but Marsella said it will make the program more equitable with the price paid by transit users who buy regular passes.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
