Illinois Moves toward Rail

Last week Governor Quinn signed HB4078 which allows the Illinois Toll Highway Authority to use all of its existing powers to construct railroad tracks. This legislation has many benefits, but one is to create a means to directly compare the benefits of rail and highways. It creates a transportation authority out of one that advocated for a single mode.

Now we need to find a way to put buses on equal footing.

Taking the Bus to CU Football

You can take what is essentially the northern part of the BroncosRide to see CU play CSU this Saturday at Mile High Stadium.

CU has its first home game the week after on Saturday, September 8 at 2pm. RTD will provide special buses, mostly from the northern metro area, but also from the Federal Center, Southmoor, Wadsworth & Hampden, and Nine Mile. Buses start two and a hours before the game, and leave as soon as the game ends. More information is available on the BuffRide website.

How would you spend $700 million?

This is the question that I asked the participants of the Social Action for Transit meeting last week. Here are there answers:

1. Education/ Green Energy

2. Complete the Rocky Mountain Rail Plan.
     Refit Union Station to allow full access for interstate trains.
     Planned Parenthood

3. Create a public/private partnership with rail companies.
     Build a rail catapult.

4. 25% Education
     25% Health care for the poor
     25% Fast transportation
     25% Bridges and roads

5. Schools/Education
     Alternative energy
     Urban agriculture
     Water conservation in a way that benefits people, not corporations

6. Education
     Urban agriculture
     Building the local economy so that people can be self-sufficient within the Wild West
     Protecting water rights for agriculture

7. Update Amtrak trains - Fix brakes and such

The $700 million is how much that it would cost to widen I-70 for just a few miles within Denver. Is that how you want your money spent? How would you spend $700 million?

Want to Know Where a Particular Amtrak Train is Right Now?

Amtrak Status Maps will tell you. The West and East maps show the long-distance trains while the smaller maps list the shorter, more frequent routes.

Another Way to Get to Jamestown

The Climb, a shuttle that already serves Gold Hill, is extending its service to Jamestown. This service only runs once from Jamestown to Boulder in the morning and then back in the evening, but it is free for residents of Jamestown until the end of the year. Residents of other cities pay $3.00 for one trip or $25 for 10 tickets.

Is Boulder County getting away from depending upon RTD for bus service?

Connecting with Small Town Colorado

Social Action for Transit is having its next meeting in Salida!

Thursday, August 23 at 6 pm
Vino Salida
8100 W. Highway 50
Salida, CO
Bus: The Black Hills bus gets into town at 5:20, and will get you there from Denver, Pine Junction, Grant, Jefferson, Fairplay, and Buena Vista. Unfortunately, you have to wait until 8 the next morning to go back.

Forrest Whitman has invited me to meet his group of mail enthusiasts, most of whom are members of ColoRail. We are also hoping to meet a few new people. Like most of our meetings, this will be an interactive evening. Although I will be giving a brief report on rail planning, or lack of it, in our state, we will mostly be discussing how we want our transportation dollars to be spent. Hopefully, we will also get some brief reports from other people.

Forrest Whitman will buy a bottle from Vino Salida, and those who want to eat will be splitting the cost of pizza.

Want to Know How to Do Business with RTD?

The Colorado Minority and Women's Business Office is hosting an all-day fair to educate businesses on how to do business with government agencies. I am listing this here because both RTD and CDOT will be there, and I personally would like to find out more about how vendors are selected. I am especially concerned that minority and women owned businesses are not being considered when they should be. I have been in too many rooms where all the contractors were white men and where none of the them seemed to know what they were doing.

Buyers and Sellers Procurement Assistance Fair
Tuesday, August 21, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
10:00 am - 3:00 pm Talk directly with government agencies
Tivoli Center on the Auraria Campus, Denver
Bus: 1, 20
Also within walking distance of the Pepsi Center/Elitch's light rail station. To get to this station, take any light rail train that goes to Union Station. All other light rail lines go by the south end of campus where they stop at the Colfax and Auraria Station. Multiple buses stop here as well.

For more information contact LeRoy Romero of the State Minority and Women's Business Office.

Reminder: Schedules Change This Sunday

The fall schedule changes take effect this Sunday, August 19.

Service increases on these routes: 0L, 1, 15, 88, 121, 130, 122X, BOLT, HX, E and F light rail lines

Service is being rerouted on these routes: 59, 66, 88,153, 228, DASH, DM

Service is being cut on these routes: 120X, C and D light rail lines

Multiple lines will have changes that keep the same number of buses, they just run a few minutes earlier or later. Here is the list: 3L, 6, 10, 12, 17, 20, 24, 28, 29/36, 35, 44, 52, 59, 66, 67, 79L, 83L, 92, 120X, 130, 131, 133, 135, 139, 169L, 204,206, 208, 209, 225, 402L, B, BOLT, BOUND, DM, HX, L, S, T, YL, light rail lines C, D, E, and F

BroncosRide Starts Next Week

There are special buses that will take you to every Broncos game including the pre-season game this Saturday, August 18. They usually start running a little more than two hours before kickoff. You can pay per round trip or you can buy a season pass. For more information, including a list of stops and the price of trips from those stops, click here: BroncosRide website.

Please note that season passes will not work for pre-season games.

Is CDOT Widening I-70?

Several people have told me yes, but my state representative, who is on the Transportation Committee at the State House, says no. Social Action for Transit has decided to oppose the widening of I-70 anywhere in Colorado, but we would love to see I-70 be buried within Denver with a park put on top. I have never seen this done successfully, but one of our Social Action for Transit members has. He says to not end  up with an impassible stretch of concrete, to really reunify the Globeville neighborhood, there needs to be a lot of public pressure.

Thankfully, CDOT does hold monthly open houses. The next one is a little earlier in the month than usual.

Wednesday, August 15 from 4:30 to 6:30
Focus Points Family Resource Center
2501 East 48th Avenue
Denver
Bus: 48 (also within walking distance of the 24)

A Member Reports

One of the purposes of Social Action for Transit is to give people a voice who cannot go to a lot of meetings. One of our members will go and then report back. This is our first report.

Chet went to a meeting hosted by the Five Points Business District about the decision of RTD to not build a connection between 30th and Downing and the DIA commuter rail line. We were hoping that the meeting would focus on ways to get this light rail line built, but it was a speech by Phil Washington, the General Director of RTD.

Chet reported the following main points from this speech:

1. RTD had never promised to extend the light rail line north from 30th and Downing

2. RTD has to report each year to DRCOG which oversees what they do. Mr. Washington did not clearly explain what DRCOG is.

3. Current projects will end in 2014/2016.

4. Every year FasTracks can change.

5. The market will dictate what we build next.

Chet commented that we would get a better return on investment if we invested in poorer areas, that we should invest in ten small businesses rather than one big one. He is right.