DENVER: It is a railway line that many have been waiting for years: RTD line B, or Northwest Rail, ends at Westminster and it is not known if it will change soon.
“RTD has to take the next steps for our entire corridor because that was the promise that was made,” Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver said.
Weaver said people have been taxing for more than 15 years and when it comes to Northwest Rail, there has been almost no movement.
“We’ve seen some advantages, so our fast bus line from Denver to Boulder has improved a bit, but it’s certainly not the train we were promised,” Weaver said.
That train was supposed to continue to Boulder and then to Longmont, but RTD has said the Northwest Rail will not be built until 2042 or later, as the price is about $ 1.5 billion.
“No one would like to finish more than RTD, but it’s all money,” RTD spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas said.
RTD has an internal FasTrack savings account with about $ 124 million, but not all of that money is spent on Northwest Rail.
“There are three other FasTrack projects: the central corridor extension, the southwest extension and the rest of the north subway line up to the 164th position,” Tonilas said.
About 75% of FasTrack’s projects are finished, but it was the unfinished ones that caused Governor Jared Polis to lean on them.
In a letter to RTD, he says in part, “I am writing to remind you of RTD’s responsibility to meet its obligations to district taxpayers and to urgently request that you begin the necessary planning to complete the construction of the corridor by 2025.”
During an RTD study session Tuesday night, there will be a discussion on how to move forward with the Northwest Railroad and whether studying design is the next step.
“We absolutely understand the frustrations of people who voted for FasTracks in 2004 and said,‘ Hey, I thought I’d get a railroad line, where’s my railroad line? “We get it and what we’re here to say is that this is our reality now,” Tonilas said.