WESTMINSTER — Officials in Denver’s northern suburbs vowed Thursday to keep pressuring the Regional Transportation District to build a commuter rail line to serve their communities, which they say have been ignored in favor of projects in other parts of the metro area.
Their efforts include lobbying the RTD board of directors during the panel’s Tuesday evening board meeting to build the North Metro Rail line to 72nd Avenue by 2018 and finishing it at 162nd Avenue by 2025.
As it stands now, RTD plans to complete the North Rail Line and the Northwest Rail Line from south Westminster to Longmont sometime between 2035 and 2044.
Meanwhile, RTD plans to complete the I-225 rail line from the Nine Mile Station Park-N-Ride on Parker Road to Peoria Street by 2016, four years ahead of schedule. The agency is scheduled to finish the Southeast Rail Line extension between 2030 and 2035.
Members of the North Area Transportation Alliance — which framed a resolution asking for the North Metro Rail completion date of 162nd Avenue — said RTD has been slighting the northern tier even as northern taxpayers have given millions in taxes to finish rail lines to the south, west and east.
“It’s not that we are against finishing I-225,” said alliance chairwoman Westminster Mayor Nancy McNally. “It’s just that we don’t like how RTD has gone about doing all this.”
Residents, along with current and former elected officials from the north, are expected to lobby the RTD board hard Tuesday to change its work plan to include more north projects. To ensure funding, RTD must submit its work schedule up to 2035 to the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
The alliance’s resolution — which will also be presented Tuesday night — asks that RTD engage local stakeholders and the private sector to come up with “out of the box” solutions to build out the North Metro Line.
“This approach may utilize alternative routes, technologies and/or interim solutions to accomplish this objective,” the resolution says.
In addition, the resolutions calls for RTD to continue to work with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to obtain, by the end of 2012, a detailed estimate on how much it will cost, by segment, to complete the Northwest rail line.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or
