R2D recently celebrated 10
years of the W Line service,
which runs from Union Station to the
Jeffco Government Center in Golden.
Lot of fanfare,
high expectations back in 2013,
but reality really hasn't
lived up to the high hopes.
The 12 mile line was the first step
in the program known as Fast Tracks.
Advocates hope it would tie the Front Range
together with 120 miles of light rail lines.
They hoped it would alleviate
traffic congestion,
lower greenhouse gas emissions.
And improve transportation accessibility.
But ridership lags behind.
Traffic is still bad,
and air pollution has only gotten worse.
Well, you're full of good news.
No, I just, I was reading it going.
So we want to talk about the W Line.
And we have with us today again,
Chris Work, the managing editor
of the Denver Business Journal.
And the W Line was in the news this year,
but only for that derailment at
the end of the line that that took
it offline for a while. Yeah.
And it's just now getting back
to running its route, so.
I mean RTD is always been in the headlines
and fast tracks especially since it,
you know the voters approved it.
The the tax that pays for it in
2004 is always in headlines for
different reasons over the course
of you know the the W line 10 years.
It's a great comparison to look at
metrics how successful is this program
and and what is the future look like.
So this
line in particular it the people
that are using it or not using it in
the way that I think RTD had hoped,
right, People commuters going to and
from work and and just saying, hey,
I don't want to deal with traffic.
I think that's very true and I think
RTD has spoken to that the original
estimates where they were going to have
on the average 20,000 riders a day.
The peak before the pandemic,
we're talking before the pandemic,
right, was only 13,000 post pandemic.
Right now it's around 9000 and and there
really isn't a big commuter base there.
It's people going to sporting events
and going to the entertainment
district and students from our area,
you know, taking that route.
How do you
convince people to take it?
I mean what is it?
What would convince people,
more people to get on the line?
If you're if you're RTD,
do you just have this and this is
what's going to be or do you have
to get better at it, If you will,
Tom, that's the golden question.
You know, I wish I had solutions.
RTD is looking at lowering fares,
maybe that can get ridership up,
allowing youth to ride for free.
They did the, you know,
the free fare in August.
I believe they're going to
do that again just to build
that confidence in the system.
When you talk about delays,
they've had shorting shortages and,
excuse me, shortages and staffing.
That's a big problem, yeah.
And the delay offline.
And then you have issues with and then
security issues and other things.
They've had a lot of things
that haven't been good.
They've been in the news, sadly,
for some of these security issues alone.
Yeah, I I think the CEO,
Deborah Johnson is I sat and
read the budget last night,
that's what how I spend my, yeah,
Wednesday night and I read her you know,
opening letter.
They're counting on revenues going up,
taxes going up that will be able
to fund future projects.
Right now we have an uncompleted
beeline Boulder to Longmont
and now they're projecting they
won't finish that until 2050.
Think how much tax revenue
has been collected.
And there's some people that have
been paying into the system that
may never get to enjoy that line.
You and I grew up in a town where
we're mass transits a big part
of the deal back in New York.
And you go to some of these these cities,
the older cities tend to have more
mass transit that is more functional.
It was built as the city's grew.
But one thing that they provided I thought
was very important was express service.
And every now and then if you get on
RTD and you're trying to get from,
you know, down in Lone Tree up into town,
you're going to make. 53 stops, right.
And if you had it, you know,
a service, you know,
it's tough with only one line 11 rail going.
But I think that might be
something to look at too.
We'll see where it goes.
I mean, they have a lot to do.
75% of the projects that they
had promised have been finished.
However, 100% of the projects
were supposed to be finished
by years ago. Yeah. Yeah.
Usually when we introduce a story
about RTD that we often times will
drop the word troubled. In there.
So this is another troubling
situation for them specific to the
W Line and its 10th anniversary.
Yeah, they've read, structured some debt.
They're making moves in a positive manner.
So we'll see where things go.
Chris Roark, the managing editor
of the Denver Business Day,
Always good to see it. Thanks.