(rshsdepot) Union Station - Denver, CO

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Denver's Union Station May Become Transit Hub
The Denver Post


Oct. 10--Denver's historic Union Station would become a transportation hub
with rail and regional bus stations located underground and commercial
buildings reaching 15 stories above, under a plan announced Thursday.
Full buildout of the Union Station "vision plan," as officials called it,
would cost $560 million.

Passage by metro voters of RTD's proposed FasTracks transit expansion plan
would be a catalyst for redevelopment of the Union Station site, officials
said.

FasTracks carries a price tag of at least $4.3 billion. About $250 million
of that total is earmarked for Union Station redevelopment, said Liz Rao,
planning chief for the Regional Transportation District.

The plans unveiled Thursday are part of a $5.3 million multi-year study. By
burying the rail and bus stations, 18th Street would no longer have to dead
end at the station but would go through to the Platte Valley.

The Union Station study is a joint venture of RTD, the Colorado Department
of Transportation, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the city
and county of Denver.

The redevelopment plan estimates it would cost $230 million to construct an
underground light- rail station and about $120 million each for a separate
passenger-rail station and a regional bus station, both also underground.

The passenger-rail station would handle Amtrak trains, the Ski Train and
possible future commuter-rail trains to Denver International Airport,
Boulder and Longmont.

It also would be constructed for "through service" in a way that would allow
a possible Front Range passenger train that would travel between Fort
Collins and Colorado Springs with stops at Union Station.

Currently, passenger trains that use Union Station come to a dead end there
and must back out to exit the terminal.

The Union Station plan also calls for private transportation services -- 
including Greyhound and charter buses, taxicabs and rental car companies -- 
to be located near the rail and RTD stations.

One RTD light-rail line, the C Line that snakes through the Central Platte
Valley past Invesco Field and the Pepsi Center, now uses Union Station.

Downtown Denver's 16th Street Mall shuttle bus also terminates at the
station, parts of which date to 1881.

RTD, Denver and their partners bought the station for $50 million in 2001
from the Union Pacific Railroad and other property owners.

With FasTracks, RTD plans to add at least five more light-rail and
commuter-rail lines in the metro area that would feed into Union Station as
a transit hub.

To raise the $4.3 billion, RTD plans to ask voters in the seven-county metro
area to approve a hike in the transit district's sales tax to 1 percent from
the current 0.6 percent. That vote could come in November 2004.

If the FasTracks tax plan is rejected, planners "would assess the revenue
streams we do have and modify the buildout plan for Union Station based on
available revenues," Rao said.

The proposed new FasTracks rail lines that would serve Union Station include
one to Lakewood and Golden and another that would parallel portions of
Interstate 70 to serve Arvada.

A commuter-rail line would go from Union Station to Longmont, with
intermediate stops in Westminster, Louisville and Boulder.

One other line would roughly parallel Interstate 25 to north Adams County,
and a commuter line would link Union Station with DIA.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #769
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org