Rep. Jared Polis on Thursday urged the Regional Transportation District to take the $134 million it expects to save for refinancing $300 million in federal loans related to Denver’s Union Station project and put it toward completing the rail line that would connect Denver to Boulder and Longmont.
Polis said in a news release that Colorado voters approved FasTracks “with the promise of a northwest rail connecting Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville, Niwot, and Longmont to the Denver metro area rail by 2017.
“That promise was broken and a ridiculous and unacceptable completion date of 2042 was announced,” Polis said. “I have said time and again that a delay of 20 plus years is unacceptable.”
The development boom around Union Station has spiked property and sales tax proceeds to levels that weren’t expected for another seven years, and RTD and Denver took advantage of the revenue and refinanced their loans. Both entities will save money by paying lower interest rates.
RTD spokesman Nate Currey said that the $134 million in savings translates to about $6 million in savings per year until about 2040, but is not a lump sum that will immediately be available.
“RTD is always committed to finishing the voter-approve FasTracks projects,” he said. “We are taking this seriously, and we are always looking for new ways to speed up the timeline.”
In 2004, voters approved of a 0.4 percent increase on sales taxes to fund RTD’s FasTracks initiative, which was supposed to add 122 miles of light and commuter rail and 18 miles of bus rapid transit.
Part of the commuter rail promise was to build a line from Union Station in Denver northwest through Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder and Niwot, ending at a $17 million transit station in Longmont.
The northwest rail corridor, however, remains the largest FasTracks project without a definite start or finish date, which has caused ill will among officials in Boulder County toward RTD.
Currey said choosing which projects get priority rests with the elected RTD board of directors and the line to Boulder and Longmont is one of many that constitute the FasTracks project.
“It’s the longest and most expensive portion of that,” he said, referring to the rail line to Boulder County. “It’s also one of the most challenging.”
The Denver Post contributed to this story.
John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme
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