A call has gone out for volunteers to serve on a committee that advises the Regional Transportation District on the agency’s FasTracks commuter rail and bus program.
People who want a seat on the 17-member FasTracks Citizens Advisory Committee must submit a brief application letter and resume to Dale.Honor@rtd-denver.com by the close of business Sept 21.
The panel is open to all who are served by RTD.
But some of the critics of the FasTracks project to date say serving on the advisory panel won’t yield many results.
“I think with the problems we have had, it is going to take a lot more than a citizens advisory committee,” said Longmont City Councilwoman Katie Witt. “I really don’t know if the RTD administration is ready to care what others have to say about FasTracks at this time.”
Officials in Longmont and other northern cities are angry over setbacks in the FasTracks plan which calls for commuter rail to come into their communities by 2044.
Longmont is studying proposals that would bring rail to the city long before that. Mayor Dennis Coombs said a
volunteer from Longmont might not be able to sway opinions on a citizens board tilted heavily toward more populous areas.
“I think we might be deluding ourselves on how much power we’d really have on that committee,” he said.
But the RTD governing board has relied heavily on the citizens panel for guidance in its biggest decisions, including whether to pursue a new tax increase this fall to add services to northern cities, FasTracks spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas said.
