Today, Denver’s Regional Transit District is celebrating the opening of a new 10.5-mile light-rail line in Aurora, Denver’s largest suburb. Part of the only planned rail route in Denver that isn’t focused on downtown, the line–which holds the distinction of already having killed a pedestrian before it even opened–is supposed to allow people at the Denver Tech Center, a large employment center in south Denver, to get to the airport without going all the way downtown first.
The green dashed line, known as the R line, opens today. Click image for a larger view.
The problem with this idea is that light rail is s l o w. The new line will average 16.5 miles per hour. Getting from Belleview, one of the Tech Center stations, to the airport by rail transit will require a change of trains in Peoria. The R-line is expected to take 45 minutes to get from Belleview to Peoria, and the A-line takes another 21 minutes from Peoria to the airport. Add to that up to an hour of wait time–both trains operate on 15-minute headways during rush hour and every 30 minutes the rest of the day–and you have a trip that can’t compete with driving, which takes just 26 minutes from the Tech Center to the airport. Plus, the Tech Center is so large that many offices are not within easy walking distance of a light-rail stop.
Not being light rail, the A-line to the airport is faster, averaging about 35 miles per hour. But the fastest transit route in the Denver area isn’t a rail line but the new Flatiron Flyer bus-rapid transit from Denver to Boulder. From downtown Denver to downtown Boulder the bus averages 41 miles per hour, at least twice as fast as Denver’s light-rail lines. The bus also has the advantage of forking to multiple destinations: the Flyer is actually six different bus lines (many with local variations) that use high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes in US 36 between Denver and Boulder.
The Flatiron Flyer was the only specific bus route voters approved in the 2004 FasTracks plan, which also included six rail routes. It was not only the fastest and least-expensive FasTracks route, it was the only FasTracks route that didn’t have huge cost overruns. Since part of the route involved the use of HOT lanes, it actually reduced congestion while light rail increased it because it gave drivers options to use the HOT lanes when traffic is congested. It’s too bad RTD didn’t plan bus-rapid transit on the R-line and other light-rail lines, as it would have provided far better service at a much lower cost.
Are you telling me these “BUSES” can go anywhere and faster than the light rail were building….What an unfathomable technology..
The only positive thing is that they are actually charging fares, unlike the free rides in other places.
My assumption is that unless ridership goes way beyond expectations, even with these fares the cost of operation will never be met. With no $ for maintenance. And the cost of construction will never receive a dime.
Interesting how all these light rails want to provide service to airports. I guess that gets used, but airports hardly serve the poor and they hardly suffer from lack of different ways to get there.
Sandy Teal wrote:
Interesting how all these light rails want to provide service to airports. I guess that gets used, but airports hardly serve the poor and they hardly suffer from lack of different ways to get there.
Great points. I suppose that promoters of passenger rail transit (be it light rail, heavy rail or some sort of regional rail) see that air travel is likely to grow over the long term, and having lines running to airports means that they will capture some of that growth (and be able to boast about increasing transit patronage), even though there are usually plenty of ways to reach an airport without spending large amounts of money to construct new rail lines.
Curiously, the one airport that might benefit from having a rail line running directly to it is New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), which does not have any rail service at all, even though it is located in Queens, which has a fair amount of rail transit for many many years.
Across the Hudson River, Newark Liberty Airport (EWR) is owned and operated by the same agency as LGA (the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey), yet the only rail transit that serves EWR are New Jersey Transit’s regional rail trains and some Amtrak trains. It is not possible to take the Port Authority’s own PATH trains to get from Manhattan to EWR (though it may be possible at some point in the future after a lot of money is spent to extend the PATH line to EWR).
Sandy made stuff up: “but airports hardly serve the poor”
There are plenty of poor people on flights. Recently sat next to a lower class person on way to Phoenix. She was headed to AK. I’ve flown from JFK to California as a poor park ranger for $99 one way.
Sandy loves to pontificate and make stuff up just to have something to say.
You people are fools and likely plants by the big corporation fascists. Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said that “light rail will transform Aurora”, exclaiming that real estate developers will be tripping over themselves putting up new skyscrapers, thanks to the glorious R Line. “It’s going to make this part of Aurora really an urban center, part of the overall transition of Aurora from a suburb to a city,”, said Hogan.
Other members of the Really Smart class concurred:
“It’s going to be crazy. It’s our new downtown.”
Tom Tobiassen, Regional Transportation District board member
“The goal here is for them to have a city center, to have their brand, to say, ‘This is Aurora’”.
Marilee Utter, executive vice president with the Urban Land Institute
Don’t you nattering nabobs of negativism feel foolish now?