Basically its a huge improvement in the mass transit system in the city. At the moment we have a light rail system, but that's basically limited to the Denver area. This initiative will expand it to areas outside of Denver like Boulder, Golden, the Airport, etc., and all points in between. The hub of this system will be Union Station in downtown Denver, which is usually pretty dead. But when this is completed, Union Station will be our own little Grand Central Station with roughly 250k people a day passing through it. IIRC, one of the lines going to the Airport will pass right by the site of the proposed Rapids Stadium.
Where on this map is the Rapids SSS exactly? http://www.rtd-denver.com/fastracks/north_metro_corridor.html
Do you see where I-70 and I-270 come together? The road directly to the left is Quebec. If you go up to 56th you'll be at the stadium site.
This is going to greatly improve the transit in and around Denver. The old main train station in downtown, Union Station, will become the hub of all light rail and commuter rail around the metro area. There will be a train going the 40 miles up to Boulder and then on to Longmont. A train will go up I-25 (the major n/s highway) to the one of the fastest growing areas in the state. New lines will head west to Golden and Lakewood. There will be a new line to the airport. The Union Station area will redevelop into the center of downtown and an area where people actually want to hang out. It is going to be a great thing for Denver. As people continue to move here from out of state it will help handle the load. Right now in rush hour it can take over an hour to drive the two lane highway from Boulder to Denver. This will remove that time. It will let people in the south metro area get to the airport without driving. It will incourage new development to add density in already developed areas instead of sending development further into the plains. Overall a great move by Denver.
Did you write the argument in favor of FasTracks in the Colorado ballot issues voters' booklet thing, Bonji?
How exactly does the funding come into play now? I read an article today in the Denver Post (from today's or yesterday print edition, I woudl assume) on the rail line to DIA. If I understand right, Fastracks was the master, high level plan + the funding but that certain specific details of the project were yet to be determined. For example, whether to do LRT or commuter rail to DIA is to be determined. Is this correct? Could the powers to be come along and say "no, we're not gonig to build on these 2 corridors and instead run LRT to Castle Rock"?
As far as I know Fastracks was for certain coridoors. So I don't think they will be able to switch to Castle Rock from one or two of the current planned coridoors. However, not all of the environmental studies and planning has been completed. So maybe what you read was saying that they still need to choose between light rail and commuter rail. I don't know for certain and I didn't read the story.
Here's the story http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2519021,00.html My main question was about the corridors. Or, to put it another way, how permanent were the plans that were approved in the measure? Cuz if I moved and bought a place, those are the areas that would be on the top of my list.