DENVER - While RTD looks for ways to modify costs on its $1.7 billion rail line to Denver International Airport, the agency is evaluating the route and properties along the path of the FasTracks project. Frequent business travelers like John Mickel look forward to the option once its complete in the next decade. "It's getting tougher and tougher to find a place to park when you get out to the airport. How easy that would be to just get on, and you're there," said Mickel. The rail line would run nearly 24 miles from Union Station in Downtown Denver, going east to the Denver airport near Interstate 70. It is scheduled to start running in 2017. The route would feature six stations along the way. RTD is already dealing with a $2 billion budget shortfall because of poor sales tax revenue and rising construction costs, so the agency is being forced to find creative ways to pay for the commuter project. "The economy has affected all of us, and a program of the magnitude of FasTracks has been impacted a great deal," said FasTracks spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas. Tonilas says RTD has identified more than 60 commercial or industrial properties along the path that could be affected, including six homes. The agency will evaluate the project with an environmental study before deciding on payments for the property owners, Tonilas said. Property owners can share their input at two public meetings next month. In the meantime, the FasTracks project is undergoing some evaluation of its own before a financial update on the plan is presented in March. "When we have the economic challenges that we're having right now, it makes you kind of go back to the drawing board and look at what you can do from a whole financial picture," said Tonilas. A small RTD poll last month found 63 percent of people would generally support a sales tax increase, as much as double what voters approved for FasTracks in 2004. Since then, the project has taken a few turns but its final destination is still a reality. "You have to have patience in any project like that. But I think, in the end, it's worth the wait," said Mickel.
i hope that the project gets done quick. Thta would be cool to ride from DIA to downtown! uh yeah, you try sitting in a trolley that long... been there, done that....
