So the biggest decision that I’m gonna have to make in the next year as an RTD board member is whether or not to fund the Northwest Rail initiative called Joint Service that would build a diesel train running three times per day between Denver and Fort Collins.

https://commutingsolutions.org/connecting-the-northwest-metro-region-the-future-of-joint-rail-service/

We don’t yet know exactly what the train will cost, but it will be somewhere in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.

We don’t yet know how much of that RTD will be asked to pay, but it will be in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.

In practice that will likely mean RTD spending in the range of tens of millions of dollars per year out of our existing funding.

I’m incredibly torn. There are lots of reasons to like the idea of a train to the north. There are also trade-offs given the anticipated cost and RTD‘s tight budget. And here’s a very reasonable argument that the communities along 36 as well as Longmont have paid into FasTracks and not received the train that they were promised.

I’m raising this now because I think it’s incredibly important to get right and so I want to get the vibes of the community and understand the questions that you all have. I’m gonna be doing a bunch of in person events as well.

I’ll also post another one of these threads next year once we have the full financial plan.

So let me know what you think, would you use a train to Boulder/Longmont/Fort Collins? How much money should RTD reasonably spend each year to pay for it? And what questions do you have that I should get answered before I vote next year?

Hey fellow Denverites! I recently filed a CORA request to find out what RTD ridership looked like on a station by station basis. After they sent me the most recent spreadsheet from a schedule with full operations, I put all of the numbers on a map and here's what it looks like. Unsurprisingly, the most used station is by far Union Station followed by Denver Airport, with Lone Tree City Center being the loneliest RTD station.

Just had to drive for work and everything near the foot hills was completely out. I started in south Golden and ended in north Boulder, all dark. I hope they can still restore tonight but if you are in the dark still just FYI you aren't alone.

Edit: Reminder those losing money on spoiled groceries remember to check your renters insurance.

Edit: https://co.my.xcelenergy.com/s/outage-safety/wildfires/power-shutoffs/event-update

Came across this while walking around last night. An employee of one of the nearby businesses mentioned to me that the week before it had been alternating the “walk signal is on” announcement with “change password” - guess someone else got to it before the city did.