First Portion Of Denver’s New Mass Transit Expansion Opening Next Month

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The first portion of Denver’s multi-billion dollar mass transit expansion, the 12-mile West Line light-rail route, is set to open only a month from now. The W line, as it’s officially known, is expected to serve around 20,000 or so people every day, with significant growth expected as other lines are opened over time.

Denver light rail map
Image Credit: RTD FasTracks

The line will open to the public on April 26, becoming the first section of the enormous metro-wide FasTracks program to be opened to the public. Monte Whaley, of the Denver Post, writes:

The W Line will run between Denver Union Station and the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden. It passes through 11 new stations that include six Park-n-Ride lots with 5,606 parking spots.

At rush hour, the $707 million line will run every 7½ minutes. RTD expects about 20,000 people will ride each day. The line includes 20 at-grade crossings — which is an intersection at the same level as the train — 10 light rail bridges, three street bridge reconstructions, three pedestrian bridges, two light rail tunnels and more than 4 miles of bike paths.



 
The W line will be followed by the East corridor commuter rail line opening in 2015, the I-225 Corridor light-rail line in 2016, the commuter rail Gold Line in 2016, and the Northwest Rail Corridor and North Metro Corridor commuter rail lines opening by 2019. Further extensions to the light-rail lines are planned but it’s unclear when they will open.

If you’re in the Denver area or are familiar with it and you have anything to say about this project, we’d love to hear it.


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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