At today’s first of 16 public meetings where RTD intends to assess the future of FasTracks, 75 of 100 people who attended said they were either very supportive or somewhat supportive of RTD raising more money to construct the entire project by 2017.
The Regional Transportation District said this week it would consider going back to metro Denver voters for a sales-tax increase of between 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points — 2 to 3 cents on each $10 purchase — to build FasTracks as promised to area residents in 2004. At that time, voters approved a tax increase of 4 cents on $10 for the transit expansion. The 2004 vote boosted RTD’s total sales tax to 1 percent.
Last month, RTD said the cost of building all of FasTracks by 2017 had jumped to $7.9 billion from an estimate of $6.1 billion a year ago. The agency blamed the increase largely on the soaring price of construction materials and higher-than-expected costs for acquiring land for key rail lines.
Like the straw poll of support for an increased tax taken at today’s meeting, RTD wants to weigh public reaction to FasTracks options that could be implemented if no new money can be secured for the project. These include building the Northwest, North Metro and Interstate 225 FasTracks rail lines shorter than planned, by 2017, and possibly extending them to their original destinations by 2034.
The Northwest train originally was planned to go to Boulder/Longmont from Union Station, but a shortened version might end temporarily in Westminster or Broomfield. The North Metro line from Union Station was to go to 162nd Avenue in north Adams County, but a curtailed version might end at 88th Avenue or 112th Avenue. The I-225 line was to extend light rail in Aurora from the current Nine Mile station at Parker Road and I-225 to the Aurora City Center area and the Fitzsimons medical complex before ending at Peoria Street and Smith Road, tying in with the DIA train. RTD now is looking at a possible temporary end for the line in Aurora City Center.
Today, those participating in the straw poll at RTD’s headquarters were least enthusiastic about the option of using available FasTracks money — if no new funds are raised — to build only one line among the Northwest, North Metro and I-225 by 2017 and letting the other two die. Seventy-one percent said they were “very unsupportive” of such a proposal and another 15 percent said they were somewhat unsupportive.
