The FasTracks line to Denver International Airport, expected to draw riders from all over the region, could be set up to run express trips that would get there faster by bypassing some stations.
RTD planners are thinking of including that option in the package they will put out next year to private companies that would compete to build, finance and run both the airport line and the FasTracks Gold Line to Arvada and Wheat Ridge.
Those two corridors plus construction of a commuter rail maintenance facility to serve them are being packaged as a single project to attract extra financing from the private sector and help meet a $566 million shortfall in RTD's own financing for the program, now figured to cost nearly $6.07 billion.
With pressure on RTD to include two more stations than originally planned, travel time to DIA could be slowed. The answer is to ask the private sector bidders to include an option for passing tracks that would permit selected trips to skip some stations and cut the travel time.
Because service on the line is planned to be frequent, local stations still would be served by many of the trains.
Liz Rao, RTD's FasTracks manager, said any such change in the current plans would require input from the community and further environmental study.
At a meeting Tuesday for the elected RTD board to review status of the FasTracks program, RTD General Manager Cal Marsella told members that the new $1.14 billion cost for the 23.6-mile electrified commuter rail line from the airport to downtown doesn't include any funding for two extra stations that developers at High Point in Aurora want.
RTD's position is that add-ons to the original plans voters saw in 2004 have to be funded from outside parties to be included in the project.
Developers and others along the corridor have pushed RTD during the environmental study to include stations at 64th Avenue and Pena Boulevard and at 72nd Avenue and Himalaya Road.
The airport line is on FasTracks' East Corridor. Because it serves DIA, it is expected to attract many riders from all the other rail corridors who don't need to stop at the stations along the way. But the line still has to serve the communities it passes through.
