DENVER – It is a railway that many have been waiting for years: line B of RTD or Northwest Rail ends in Westminster and it is not known if it will change soon.
“RTD needs 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 taxed for more than 15 years, and when it comes to Northwest Rail, there has been no movement at all.
“We’ve seen some benefits, so our fast bus line from Denver to Boulder has been slightly improved, but it’s certainly not the train we were promised,” Weaver said.
The train was to continue to Boulder and then to Longmont, but RTD said Northwest Rail will not be built until 2042 or later, as the price is now about $ 1.5 billion.
“No one would like to finish them more than RTD, but it all means money,” said RTD spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas.
RTD has a FasTrack internal savings account of approximately $ 124 million, but not all of this money is dedicated to the Northwest Railroad.
“There are three other FasTrack projects: extending the central corridor, extending the southwest and the rest of the north subway line to 164,” Tonilas said.
About 75% of FasTrack projects are complete, but unfinished ones have led Governor Jared Polis to bow.
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 urge you to begin planning to complete the corridor by 2025.”
During an RTD study session on Tuesday evening, there will be a discussion on how to move forward with Northwest Rail and whether the design study is a next step.
“We absolutely understand the frustrations of the people who voted for FasTracks in 2004 and said, ‘Hey, I thought I’d get a railway, where’s my rail line?’ “We get this and what we are here to say that this is our reality now,” Tonilas said.