Denver Mayor Michael Hancock took advantage of the commemoration of the opening of RTD’s new light-rail platform at Union Station on Monday to reiterate his pledge to complete the massive FasTracks transit expansion.
“My hope is that we go to voters in 2012,” Hancock said of the possibility of asking voters in the eight-county Denver area to double the existing 0.4 percent FasTracks sales tax. The mayor discussed the tax in a post-ceremony interview with The Denver Post.
Of a possible vote next year, the mayor acknowledged, “We have to build a best case for it.”
Hancock said among the factors public officials will weigh as they consider a tax vote are the state of the economy and what competing measures may be on the 2012 ballot.
Voters approved the original FasTracks tax in 2004, but since then, lower-than-anticipated tax revenues and higher-than-expected construction costs have combined to leave the project more than $2 billion short of what is needed for completion.
In celebrating the new light-rail station, Hancock said, “Very soon, I want to take that 28 minute ride to DIA. That will continue to transform the entire region and connect Denver with the rest of the world.”
The construction tab for the new light-rail platform is about $37 million, but the Denver Union Station Project Authority also is spending $113 million on a commuter-rail facility just outside the west doors of historic Union Station.
RTD expects to start construction in earnest soon on the $1.1 billion East Corridor commuter train to Denver International Airport. It is due to open in 2016.
In opening the new light-rail platform at Union Station, RTD restarted service on its Central Platte Valley rail line that had been closed for a few weeks for various construction projects.
RTD also extended its 16th Street Mall free shuttle bus on Monday to serve the new platform.
“It’s an easy transition,” said Kelsey Ripley as she arrived on an E line train at the new station around 7:50 a.m. Ripley and a fellow commuter, Kelly Schaible, work only a block away at Gates Corp.
Some transit advocates had complained about Union Station redevelopment designs that placed the light-rail platform about two blocks west of its old location — and further from the historic station.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
