Amtrak is leaving Denver's Union Station

On February 1, Amtrak will be leaving Denver's Union Station for a temporary station located at the intersection of 21st and Wewatta (1800 21st Street).

A couple of Colorail members have a bet going about this. One says that Amtrak will never get back into Union Station. Another members says that Amtrak will be able to move back because of the efforts of people like the members of Colorail.

We need to make sure that Amtrak gets back into Denver's historic train station. (Step One: Go to the meeting on Wednesday.)

Last Chance to Tell RTD What They Should Do with Union Station

RTD is having one last meeting to get public input on how they are going to use Union Station once they get it back from the developers.

If you are unable to attend the meeting tonight, you can send your comments to Mike Turner at mike.turner@rtd-fastracks.com. The presentation will be available on the FasTracks website.

Right now there are no plans to make the station easier to use for passengers who take the trains. Hopefully, some people who take the trains can come and tell RTD what would make the station comfortable for them to use.

Final Denver Union Station Historic Building Reuse Public Meeting
(Yes, that is the official title.)
Wednesday, January 26
RTD Administrative Offices
1600 Blake Street, Rooms T & D
Denver, CO 80202

The offices are right under Market Street Station. The main door are on the northwest end of the block. Multiple buses serve this location, including the 0, 1, 6, 9, 15L, 20, 28, 32, 44, 120X, AF, BF, BV, BX, L,LH, LX, S. The free Mall Shuttle runs by also. Make sure you check the bus schedule to see when the last one runs to make sure you know if you have to leave the meeting. Several routes stop running at shortly after 7:00.

Boulder County is developing a transportation plan

Boulder County is holding public meetings to help the Transporation Department develop a transportation master plan, partly to help the county interact effectively with other transportation agencies, with other counties, and with local cities. Boulder County only pays for some of its residents transportation needs, so this is important.

There are going to be three meetings, each in different parts of the county. Each starts at 5:00 with a presentation at 5:30 followed by public comments which are scheduled to end at 7pm. Here are the locations with local transit information:

City of Boulder
Thursday, January 13
Boulder County Transportation Department
2525 13th Street, Second Floor, Large Conference Room
This meeting will focus on transportation in western Boulder County.
The Boulder County Government building is in north Boulder near the Community Plaza Shopping Center. The nearest bus stop is at Broadway and North Street, although Alpine is the street listed on the schedule. The SKIP runs at least every fifteen minutes throughout the meeting time. The  last two 208's going east are at 6:56 and 7:26. The last 208 headed to the Boulder bus station comes by at 7:10.

City of Lafayette
Wednesday, January 19
Centaurus High School
10300 South Boulder Road
Centaurus High School is served by the DASH which runs every fifteen minutes for people arriving to the meeting, and every half an hour for people leaving. Buses for Louisville and Boulder leave at 6:53, 7:23, and 7:53. Buses to the Lafayette ParknRide leave at 6:49, 7:15 and 7:45.

City of Longmont
Thursday, January 20
Longmont Public Library, Meeting Rooms A & B
409 4th Avenue (4th and Emery)
Longmont has lost a lot of bus service in the last two years, so getting here is easy, but not getting home. The 323 passes 4th and Collyer going both directions close to 5:00, but it stops running before the end of the meeting. If you are headed out to the Skyline High School area, you need to catch the bus at 6:30. If you are going near Twin Peaks Mall, you should take the BOLT. The BOLT stops at Main and 3rd where buses arrive at 4:40 and 5:10 going both directions. After the meeting, buses head to the north end of Main Street at 6:50, 7:15 and 7:45. Buses head south to Niwot and Boulder at 6:48, 7:13 and 8:13. The BOLT is a regional bus, so fares may be more expensive than for the local buses. Other regional buses that stop at Main and 3rd are the J (to east Boulder) and the L (to Lafayette and Denver). The 324 stops here also, although it stops running before the meeting ends. You can also take the bus Berthoud, Loveland, and Fort Collins. The FREX arrives at 8th and Coffman at 4:55 and 5:22. Unfortunately, the last bus back north leaves at 6:40.

All bus times are approximate.

I hope that lots of people can come to one of these meetings. If you are not able to come to a meeting, the current plan can be downloaded from a link at http://www.bouldercounty.org/sustain/trans/pages/transportationmasterplan.aspx .
you can send comments to Julie McKay at jmckay@bouldercounty.org.

Subways as another world

We are going to go away from the US for this month's movie, Kontroll (Hungary, 2003) a movie that creates its own world out of the fictional lives of ticket inspectors in the Budapest subway. The main character lives in the subway, and within the movie it is the world above ground that seems to be fictional. This is an accomplishment because the Budapest metro is not that big.

Someone should make a movie about the Paris metro as its own world. You could actually live there.

The movie is not available for streaming anywhere (legally), but the DVD is available for rent from Netflix.

Happy New Year!

Chicago-St. Louis high-speed line is actually under construction

In September, the state of Illinois started upgrading a ninty-mile stretch of track between Alton and Lincoln. Earlier this week that state, the US Department of Transportation, Amtrak, and the Union Pacific Railroad announced that they had come to an agreement that would allow the trains to run on time AND allow significant freight traffic in the corridor. The next phase of construction will start in the spring when the track between Lincoln and Alton will be upgraded. All upgrades should be done in the spring.

I-70 Collaborative Effort (???)

The next meeting of the I-70 Collaborative Effort is going to be on Friday, December 3 from 8:30 to noon in Silverthorne.

Now I am a board member of an organization that is supposedly a part of this effort, and I don't really know what this is. It appears that the members might get to decide what happens to the I-70 corridor rather than CDOT doing what the public wants. It is at the Silverthorne Pavilions which actually would be a good place for a protest. I might see if I can get a couple of people to go up with me and we can ask the shoppers at the outlet malls what they would like to see happen with the area.

Here are the details:
I-70 Collaborative Effort Meeting
8:30 am - 12 pm
Silverthorne Pavilions
400 Blue River Parkway
Silverthorne, CO

The public can comment sometime between 11 am and noon.

Example of a Car-Free Life - "They Live"

Starting in a freight yard full of moving trains, John Carpenter's "They Live" is a told from the point of view of people who live without a car. From the beginning of the film when a policeman gets out of a car to silence a street preacher, cars are connected with oppression and with power. In fact, the one working class hero of the film who owns a car loses it in the process of learning the truth. Nada, the film's hero, walks throughout the film.

Jonathem Lethem recently put together a slide show analysis of "They Live" on Salon.com based on his book. In it he notes that the movie obviously takes place in Los Angeles, but that L.A.'s car culture is absent. Mr. Lethem may not realize that 25% of Angeleno households are car-free. In fact, the transportation profile of Los Angeles makes it an ideal setting for a movie based on class-conflict as most households that are car-free because the people who live in them are too poor to afford a car. This is different from many other large US cities where many people choose to use transit even though they can afford to buy a car.

And now I have made this movie sound like a serious exploration of Marxism or something when in fact it is a kick-ass action movie. With cheesy aliens. Watch the clip below for one of the best lines in movie history. (WARNING: SPOILERS)



"They Live" is available through Netflix and is showing on AMC on Friday, December 10 at 11 pm.