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Denver: Transit News

Guest mrniles
Guest mrniles
in Mass Transit

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^Crazy amount of investment in light rail and commuter rail in Denver. Good for them and it should cement Denver as a millennial boomtown.

  • 1 month later...

^Great news for Denver.  Denver's P3 funding concept should be a model for all cities seeking to expand rail transit.

Good read, I'd like to see some more regionalism in NEO.  I still stand by my theory that Ohio has too many metro areas competing for money both state and federal dollars.  The article talked about the Senators calling daily to get federal funds.  Would both Senators or all Representatives in Ohio fight for one metro area or region?  In Colorado there really is no other city to fight for realistically.

I like transit maps so I thought I would post the Denver light rail map for your viewing pleasure.

Ohio is definitely an interesting situation where we have three mid-sized metropolitan areas that are all almost identical in population. No other state has that. The closest is North Carolina with Charlotte and Raleigh but even then it's not quite the same.

 

It provides some interesting statewide economic diversity, but like you said it means you have three equal-sized regions all competing for state and federal dollars. And unfortunately it seems each of the 3C's have gotten it in their heads to hate on the other two instead of trying to boost all three for the benefit of the state. But that's another topic.

 

I was in Denver last summer and really enjoyed the light rail. The city itself was pretty generic and didn't necessarily do much for me in terms of the built environment (architecturally, it was pretty good from a planning perspective) but I can definitely see why there's such a huge draw.

Is anyone else confused by what is happening on that map in the downtown area? what's with the little green appendix that shoots up to the north east?

 

Relatedly, I'm incredibly frustrated that the Google Maps Transit layer only shows heavy rail lines.

 

edit: correct syntax

I just went to Google Maps to do the transit overlay and was displeased it wasn't available in Denver since it's all light rail. That's really frustrating.

I just went to Google Maps to do the transit overlay and was displeased it wasn't available in Denver since it's all light rail. That's really frustrating.

 

Actually the newer lines generally to the north of the City, like the A Line to the airport, are full-scale, electrified heavy-commuter rail.

^ Commuter rail also does not come up on the "transit" layer of Google Maps. Only heavy rail.

 

Edit: Actually, it looks like it differs by city. Some seem to show commuter routes. And it shows San Diego's light rail network, so who knows?

Ohio is definitely an interesting situation where we have three mid-sized metropolitan areas that are all almost identical in population. No other state has that. The closest is North Carolina with Charlotte and Raleigh but even then it's not quite the same.

 

It provides some interesting statewide economic diversity, but like you said it means you have three equal-sized regions all competing for state and federal dollars. And unfortunately it seems each of the 3C's have gotten it in their heads to hate on the other two instead of trying to boost all three for the benefit of the state. But that's another topic.

 

While I realize the competition for state dollars among the 3-Cs, on it's face, seems like an issue for Cleveland, I think it goes deeper than that.  In John Hickenlooper, Denver had a progressive, pro-transit mayor who is now governor of Colorado.  Cleveland is dysfunctional regarding transit: we have a transit chief who I don't believe is committed to rail transit growth along with a fractured political and business community that doesn't seem to believe in, or care much about, mass transit.  In Denver, leaders are All In regarding transit.  Consider the below quote from the Politico article cited by KJP:

 

How the $7.6 billion FasTracks project saved Denver from a dreaded fate locals call “Houstonization” is the story of regional cooperation that required the buy-in of businesspeople, elected officials, civil servants and environmentalists across a region the size of Delaware. Their ability to work collectively—and the public’s willingness to approve major taxpayer investments—has created a transit system that is already altering Denver’s perception of itself, turning an auto-centric city into a higher-density, tightly-integrated urban center that aims to outcompete the bigger, older coastal cities on the global stage.

 

Consider what such across-the-board cooperation has reaped:

 

Denver is unveiling a shiny new and widely praised network: 68 stations along 10 different spurs, covering 98 miles, with another 15 miles still to come.  

 

 

 

 

 

Ohio is definitely an interesting situation where we have three mid-sized metropolitan areas that are all almost identical in population. No other state has that. The closest is North Carolina with Charlotte and Raleigh but even then it's not quite the same.

 

It provides some interesting statewide economic diversity, but like you said it means you have three equal-sized regions all competing for state and federal dollars. And unfortunately it seems each of the 3C's have gotten it in their heads to hate on the other two instead of trying to boost all three for the benefit of the state. But that's another topic.

 

While I realize the competition for state dollars among the 3-Cs, on it's face, seems like an issue for Cleveland, I think it goes deeper than that.  In John Hickenlooper, Denver had a progressive, pro-transit mayor who is now governor of Colorado.  Cleveland is dysfunctional regarding transit: we have a transit chief who I don't believe is committed to rail transit growth along with a fractured political and business community that doesn't seem to believe in, or care much about, mass transit.  In Denver, leaders are All In regarding transit.  Consider the below quote from the Politico article cited by KJP:

 

How the $7.6 billion FasTracks project saved Denver from a dreaded fate locals call “Houstonization” is the story of regional cooperation that required the buy-in of businesspeople, elected officials, civil servants and environmentalists across a region the size of Delaware. Their ability to work collectively—and the public’s willingness to approve major taxpayer investments—has created a transit system that is already altering Denver’s perception of itself, turning an auto-centric city into a higher-density, tightly-integrated urban center that aims to outcompete the bigger, older coastal cities on the global stage.

 

Consider what such across-the-board cooperation has reaped:

 

Denver is unveiling a shiny new and widely praised network: 68 stations along 10 different spurs, covering 98 miles, with another 15 miles still to come.

 

But beyond the light rail system, metro Denver has had 100,000 people move to it in the past decade. They've created a place that people want to go. Meanwhile, Ohio grew by 1.7 % between 2000 and 2010. All legacy cities except Columbus lost population.

Denver seems to be a popular place for Ohio's divorced women to move and "start over". 

 

New rail service to Denver International Airport is costlier than other cities

 

Lance Hernandez, Alan Gathright

5:57 PM, Apr 26, 2016

11:20 AM, Apr 27, 2016

 

DENVER - The new train service to Denver International Airport is costlier than rail-to-airport fares in other cities.

 

The commuter rail trip to DIA, which debuted with great fanfare on Friday, costs $9 for a day pass, which allows people unlimited, all-day travel to the airport and across RTD's regional light rail and bus system.

 

"For just the average person it's pretty expensive," said Wanda Wofford, who rode the train to DIA to have lunch with her daughter today. "For a business traveler, I think it's wonderful."

 

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/new-rail-service-to-denver-international-airport-is-costlier-than-other-cities

$9 for a day pass for an airport darn near Kansas isn't a bad deal.

"You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers

And $9 is a bargain compared to Toronto's. But Toronto's is designed with train doors that align with doors to heated station platforms so you never have to go outside. So it's a warm, cheaper and time-competitive alternative compared to taxis.

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

  • 3 months later...

The Train That Saved Denver

The car-choked city overcame regional distrust to build a major transit system that is remaking the urban core and the suburbs, too.

By Colin Woodard

 

 

decade ago, travelers arriving at Denver’s sprawling new airport would look out over a vast expanse of flat, prairie dog-infested grassland and wonder if their plane had somehow fallen short of its destination. The $4.9 billion airport—at 53 square miles, larger than Manhattan—was derided as being “halfway to Kansas,” and given the emptiness of the 23-mile drive to the city, it felt that way.

Last month, arriving visitors boarded the first trains headed for downtown, a journey that zips past a new Japanese-style “smart city” emerging from the prairie before depositing passengers 37 minutes later in a bustling urban hive of restaurants, shops and residential towers that only six years ago was a gravelly no man’s land—an entire $2 billion downtown neighborhood that’s mushroomed up around the hub of Denver’s rapidly expanding light rail system.

 

 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/what-works-denver-rail-system-growth-213905#ixzz4KMFdh7wB

Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

 

 

  • ColDayMan changed the title to Denver: Transit News
  • 4 weeks later...

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