(The following story by Jeffrey Leib appeared on The Denver Post website on November 7.)
DENVER — RTD has reached preliminary agreement on the acquisition of land from Union Pacific Railroad for four FasTracks rail lines at a cost of $185 million.
In addition, the Regional Transportation District will spend another $25 million on civil engineering work related to the purchase.
RTD directors at a committee meeting Thursday night approved the total expenditure, but the deal still needs the approval of RTD’s full board and UP’s board of directors.
“This is a breakthrough,” RTD general manager Cal Marsella said of the pact.
It follows several years of negotiations and a period in which the price tag for FasTracks has risen about $2 billion above earlier estimates.
The transaction includes:
• Acquisition by RTD of a little-used UP freight line that runs from Brighton Boulevard to Boulder. RTD will use a portion for the North Metro train to Thornton and Northglenn.
• The purchase of UP property in the East Corridor from Union Station to Airport Boulevard — land that RTD will use for the train to Denver International Airport.
• A strip of UP property running in the Interstate 76 corridor from Pecos Street to Sheridan Boulevard that RTD will use for its Gold Line commuter train to Arvada and Wheat Ridge.
• UP track relocation in the Central Platte Valley near West Colfax Avenue that will be used for the entry of the West Corridor light-rail line into downtown Denver.
RTD had hoped to acquire even more UP property to minimize the need to buy land for FasTracks from many more smaller private property owners.
But that deal — which would have meant the relocation of major UP operations — fell through, forcing RTD to come up with altered routes.
“The necessity to develop a new alignment has resulted in the need to acquire private property,” Marsella said about additional land acquisitions planned for the DIA train corridor.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, directors voted to eliminate one option that has been under consideration for dealing with FasTracks’ financial problems — choosing one additional rail line to build completely by 2017, and killing plans to build two other lines.
That option was considered politically untenable.