DENVER – It is a railway line that many have waited for years: RTD line B, or Northwest Rail, ends at Westminster and it is not known if this will change soon.
“RTD needs to take the next steps for our entire corridor because that was the promise that was made,” said Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver.
Weaver said people have been paying taxes for more than 15 years, and when it comes to Northwest Rail, there is hardly any movement.
“We saw some benefits, so our fast bus line from Denver to Boulder has been improved a little bit, but it’s certainly not the train we were promised,” said Weaver.
That train was supposed to continue to Boulder and then Longmont, but RTD said the Northwest Rail will not be built until 2042 or later because the price is now around $ 1.5 billion.
“No one would like to end this more than RTD, but it’s all about money,” said RTD spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas.
RTD has a FasTrack internal savings account of around $ 124 million, but not all of that money is dedicated to Northwest Rail.
“There are three other FasTrack projects: the extension of the central corridor, the southwest extension and the rest of the north line of the subway to 164º,” said Tonilas.
About 75% of FasTrack projects are completed, but it was the unfinished ones that led Governor Jared Polis to lean.
In a letter to RTD, he says in part: “I am writing to remind you of RTD’s responsibility to fulfill its obligations to district taxpayers and to urgently request that it begin the necessary planning to complete construction of the corridor by 2025.”
During an RTD study session Tuesday night, a discussion of how to move forward with Northwest Rail will take place and whether the design study is the next step.
“We fully understand the frustration of the people who voted for FasTracks in 2004 and said, ‘Hey, I thought I was going to get a rail line, where is my line?’ We understand that and what we are here to say is that this is our reality now “, said Tonilas.