Question regarding Denver's W (West) Light Rail Line

[DesertDude]

Currently, Denver's W Line terminates at the Jefferson County Government Center. What I want to know is, why doesn't it go all the way into downtown Golden? Between the Colorado School of Mines, the Coors Brewery, and plenty of other events/establishments to draw people in, it seems only logical to have the line continue on to downtown Golden.

My first thought is that it may be a right-of-way issue or a grade issue. A cursory glance at Google Maps suggests that there is physical space to continue the line along Hwy 6 to the Colorado School of Mines (although ownership may still be an issue). I have no idea if the grade may be too steep.

And then of course I realize it may just be a simple issue of cost - there was only enough funding to build the line out as far west as it currently goes, and the JeffCo Government Center (the locals call it the Taj Mahal) was a convenient ending point.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

 

[beautifulplanet]

The question, why light rail does not serve downtown Golden directly, was already dealt with in some other forum. While there were also statements regarding rail and bus in Denver metro area in general, and the difficulty to build rail when compared to roads, here are some of the answers directly related to rail to downtown Golden:

The reasons the particular routes were chosen were because railroad rights of way already existed as the light rail lines will follow paths formerly used by the railroad.

[Discussion that took place in the year 2000:] It was decided to follow the commercial rail corridors for fastracks as much as possible. The rail corridor from Denver to the West, separate into two separate lines, just past Sheridan, one going northwest through Coal Creek Canyon and beyond through the Rockies (Union Pacific) and the other line, going southwest, that ends at the Coors Plant (Burlington Northern), which is the one used for the Gold Line. It does not extend into the business part of Golden. It would have been extremely costly to extend a spur into Golden and go around the Coors Plant. [...]

It was also at the time when there was a confusions/discussions/oppositions to allowing light rail to run alongside the commercial freight lines and the heavy freight near the Coors Plants were problematic. Initially the Gold Line was to be Light Rail but because of these issues is now going to be heavy rail, Electrical Multiple Units (EMU). The light rail along the Southwest Corridor and near the heavy freight lines would not have been built, as light rail, if it was decided at a latter time. It had much to do with a big fatal accident in California that changed the rules.

It was decided that best access to Golden would be the West Rail Line which follows an abandoned rail corridor.

RTD never seriuosly considered bringing LRT into Golden, the terminus for the West Line was always the Jeffco Government Center due to the assumption that the vast majority of users would use vehicles to access the station. It was a cost benefit decision early in the process before FasTracks was proposed and before any cost overruns necessitated project cost cutting.

Serving Downtown Golden would have been nice. The reason has to do with the desire to serve the Cold Springs Park-n-Ride which was the largest Park-n-Ride by usage and buses in the system. So, they turn the line South. It is now has been rename to Federal Center Park-n-Ride and has been moved to be near the new Federal Station, which at that time it will take that name.

Of course, that worked well to with the need to satisfy the large government work force at the Federal Center, so they would have their own stop. The line could have easily, and with less expensive continued going west, into Downtown Golden but that would leave this huge Park-n-Ride without Rail.

Now the line then proceeded west to Red rocks and ends at the Jeffco Government complex. It could have easily turned into Golden but the powers at that time had more influence and muscle and wanted to serve the Jeffco Center. I am not saying that is such a bad decision but it then become cost prohibitive to serve downtown Golden. I think, at this point, it could have easily served downtown Golden and let the Jeffco center be served by bus.

In hindsight, the service to the Federal Center has turned into a very good option with the establishment of the new St. Anthony Hospital next to the Federal Station. That gives the whole system a big boost to have a hospital complex accessible by rail.

Interestly, the City of Golden has plans to improve transportation problems that will be caused by the extension of C-470 that show light rail extended to 19th and 6th Ave, doubt this will ever get built though.

On the official RTD website, there is also the schedule for the "FlexBus" "routes" that provide the bus connection from downtown Golden to the light rail station - of course, the operating hours and days are not as comprehensive as the ones of light rail service itself:

http://www.rtd-denver.com/callNRide.shtml#golden