Trolley Tuesday 4/28/20 - Denver RTD

Denver Tramway was a rare example of a transit company monopoly that lasted decades, when other companies like it were either bought out under a municipality, or simply given up on by private operators. When the city was able to finally break out of the Tramway's grip by 1969, it left the city without a functioning rail transit system for decades. Now picking up the pieces, Denver is now seeing millions of riders per year on its 58 miles of light rail and 29 miles of interurban, electrified commuter rail. Hop on board today's Trolley Tuesday and find out how Denver's streetcars were able to, again, rise from the ashes.

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A Denver Tramway bus, derelict.
(The Denver Post)

The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) was first conceived in 1969 under the 47th session of the Colorado General Assembly when they knew the Denver Tramway Corp. had nothing left to offer the city. The City and County of Denver continued to sponsor the Denver Tramway up until 1971, bringing almost 90 years of private mass transit to a close when it became part of the Denver Metro Transit (DMT, created by the City and County). The DMT would be folded into the RTD by 1974 and primarily focus on bus route expansion along with an automated "personal rapid transit" system that one would usually find at an airport.

...That damn horse isn't here, is it? Good. Moving on.

A rendering of the once-planned "Personal Rapid Transit"
system that Denver almost got.
(The Denver Channel)

Light rail plans weren't drawn up until 1979, when the new "Transitway" plan drew federal approval. While this gave the city a new express bus corridor, it also gave it something to connect to: the Central Corridor light-rail line. Construction on this portion would begin in 1980 with funds drawn entirely from the RTD itself, another rare occurrence, due to an existing use tax, the capital reserve, and District-issued bonds.With no worries of cost overrunning, the construction went smoothly and, on October 7, 1994, the first passengers rode the new 5.3 mile line and removed 430 bus trips that opening day.

(RTD Fastracks)

RTD's Southwest corridor paralleling the BNSF main.
(The Denver Post)

Following the Central Corridor's success, the Southwest Corridor opened six years later in July 2000, connecting the I-25/Broadway terminal with the Littleton/Mineral suburb 8.7 miles away. The line paralleled BNSF's track on Santa Fe drive, and was used by the Central Corridor until the Central Platte Valley spur opened two years later. The new service was the "C" line, with the Central Corridor adopting "D", and ran 1.8 miles out to Union Station, giving Denverites more transit options to both heavy rail transportation and the nearby sports venues.


As the main line was being extended, another project that started in the 1990s was on its way for a 2006 opening. Dubbed "T-REX", or the "Transportation Expansion Project", it originated as a way to ease gridlock along the I-25 and I-225. The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) and the RTD would collaborate to solve this issue, and by 1995, plans were drawn for a revamped freeway-and-transit corridor in collaboration, rather than separate plans.

The "T-REX" extension map.
(RTD Fastracks)

"We weren't going to spend over a billion dollars on this project without involving more highway capacity. It couldn't be a predominantly transit project," Said Bill Jones, the Federal Highway Administration's Colorado Division administrator. "This was the turning point when we realized together that the transit part of the project couldn't be built without the highway part."

With a deadline of June 30, 2008, planning began in June 1999 when the State Department of Transportation was able to use spare funds not yet allocated by the government. Working with the local neighborhoods, T-REX was able to buy six homes, two duplex, and two apartments for clearing, and forced nobody to move if they had no replacement housing yet with just a budget of $100 million. 2001 saw the first groundbreaking of the 19-mile rail corridor and, on November 2006, 13 new stations opened up to Douglas county on the new F Line service, and helped ease what was once the 14th most congested interchange in the nation.

By far, the most historic line would be the W Line that opened in April 26, 2013, with the West Corridor. Originally the Denver & Intermountain mainline between Golden and Denver, the long-abandoned corridor was earmarked for a study and purchased in the 1980s by RTD. One destination for the line was the old Remington Arms factory, now repurposed as the Federal Center station, where original D&I Car No. 25 is preserved, so sometimes the old and modern systems would meet and provide fabulous photo ops. The West Corridor also added 12.1 more miles to the system, bringing the grand total to 38 light-rail miles.

Federal Center Station, prior to opening.
(RTD Fastracks)

When the system first opened in 1994, the fleet comprised of 11 Siemens SD-100 cars. These exclusively North-American cars were found in San Diego, Salt Lake City, Calgary, and Edmonton, seat 190 people at an absolute rush and hit a top speed of 50 miles per hour, while running on the tried-and-true 600V DC overhead. Denver would soon invest in more Siemens cars by 2006, with the fleet ballooning to 172 cars by May 2015. Today, the transit system sees an excess of almost 20 million riders per year, with thousands per week, and with the new "Fastrack" commuter rail, the number just keeps rising, but I'll save the second half for Thursday.

Still no sign of that damn horse, good.
(Traveling in Heels)

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Even though we're discussing modern light rail today, please remember that light rail runs for essential workers only in these dire times. That being said, when isolation does get called off, please give patronage to the light rail as much as possible. Cities like Denver and Phoenix show it works, and they need all the public support they can get. Otherwise, as usual, you can follow myself or my editor on twitter if you wanna support us, maybe buy a shirt as well! Until next week, ride safe!