RTD directors voted unanimously this evening to pursue a new financial plan for FasTracks that is expected to ask voters to approve a doubling of the current 0.4 percent FasTracks sales tax to get the entire system built by 2017.
The action, taken at a special meeting of the Regional Transportation District’s board of directors, also directs the agency to pursue $1 billion in federal money for a planned effort by a public-private partnership to build FasTracks routes from Union Station to Denver International Airport and Arvada/Wheat Ridge.
One decision the board has yet to make is whether to put the proposed tax increase before voters this November or do that a year later.
“The sooner we do that the better,” Longmont Mayor Roger Lange told directors before the vote.
Some area mayors, especially those representing communities along proposed FasTracks train lines to Boulder/Longmont and Thornton/Northglenn, and in the Interstate 225 corridor, are concerned that without the additional billions of dollars raised from a tax increase, their lines might get truncated.
RTD has said it needs an extra $2.2 billion to get the full length of FasTracks constructed by 2017 and money from the tax hike would prevent some of the project’s construction stretching to 2034.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, directors were told that electrified commuter rail is the preferred technology for the North Metro train that is to run from Union Station to north Adams County, including service to Commerce City, Thornton and Northglenn.
Earlier analyses had indicated that diesel-powered commuter rail might be less expensive, but more recent study indicated a preference for electric trains.
Directors also approved a measure to spend $40 million to get the first phase of Union Station reconstruction underway. The station will be the hub for at least four FasTracks trains.
RTD and the Denver Union Station Project Authority have jointly negotiated with the contracting firm Kiewit a total construction cost of $341 million for the Union Station project, which includes an eight-track commuter rail station, a 22-bay underground bus facility, relocation of the existing light-rail platform and other transit elements.
