Learn about the History of the Ski Train

Arvada Roundtable
Thursday, February 2 at 5:30 pm (presentation at 7:00 pm)
7450 W. 52nd Avenue
Arvada
Bus: 76, 52
Both these buses run late. If you are taking the 76, get off right after I-70. You will be right by the restaurant, although you may have to walk up to 52nd to find a walkable way to get there. If you are taking the 52, get off on the stop after Wadsworth. You will have to walk back a little, but you are on the right side of 52nd.

The Arvada Roundtable meets every month to learn about some aspect of rail history. In February, they are presenting two programs on the history of the Ski Train. Steve Patterson will share the ski train presentation that he developed for the Aurora Historical Society. This presentation covers the train's history from its inception until its conclusion through 135 images. Kevin Morgan will follow with a program of contemporary Colorado railroading which will include the Ski Train.

The Lone Star Steakhouse lets the Arvada Roundtable use their meeting room for free because they eat dinner first. Dinner starts at 5:30 on the raised-seating section. When you arrive tell the hostess that you are with the Arvada Roundtable and go to the raised area and be seated. If you arrive on time, they will wait for you to finish dinner, but not if you are late. That said, the one time I came, I arrived at 6:00 and I had no trouble ordering and finishing my meal before 7.

Social Action for Transit's First Meeting

Want to support better bus and train service in Colorado? The come to the first meeting of Social Action for Transit:

Monday, January 30 at 6pm
Blair-Caldwell Library
2401 Welton, Denver
Light Rail: D
Bus: 38 (Stops behind the library going west, a block further on Stout going east.)

I am hoping that we get some people with good ideas, some people who have time to work on those good ideas, and some people who can donate some money to pay to have some of our good ideas executed. I also am hoping that I can find a couple of writers for this blog.

Each of us is going to answer these questions:

1. What is something you know?

2. What should we work on?

3. What can you volunteer or give to the group?

4. What work could you do for the group if we could pay you?

Is this a last chance to influence what happens with Union Station in Denver?

RTD is holding another public meeting about the plans for Union Station. I, and many other people, that poor planning decisions now will make it difficult to expand intercity service to Denver in the future. In fact, it might be difficult to get Amtrak back into Union Station if a hotel is built there. Unfortunately, that is the plan that was adopted.

I am hoping that a lot of people come to hear what has been decided so far, and there will still be an opportunity to make sure that there is decent-sized waiting room and enough space for Amtrak.

Wednesday, January 26 at 5:30 - 7:30 pm
RTD Administrative Offices
1600 Blake in the basement
The RTD building is right next to Market Street Station, so almost any bus that goes downtown, goes by this location. If you take the light rail, you can take the free mall shuttle here.

Another 40 West Public Hearing

The 40 West Arts District Urban Design and Mobility Concepts document was adopted by the Lakewood Planning Commission on November 16. This document primarily deals with sidewalks and street and sign design. It is now a proposed amendment to the Lakewood Comprehensive Plan. To be become an actual part of that plan the document needs to be approved by the City Council of Lakewood. This is most likely to happen at the next City Council meeting on Monday, January 9 at 7 pm on the first floor of 480 S. Allison Parkway. Any decision will only be reached after the city council hears public comments, although it is unlikely that the document will not be accepted.

Anyone can attend City Council meetings in Lakewood. People who cannot attend can watch the proceedings live online at KLTV8. I believe that this station is also available to people who subscribe to Comcast cable TV.

Omaha asks its residents what their transportation priorities are

Recently the City of Omaha hired a private consulting firm to interview voters in Omaha over the phone about how they get around, how they would like to get around, and how they would like the city of Omaha to spend transportation dollars.

The study found that people want more transportation choices, they want roads to be maintained, and they want more money to be spent on sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure. 54% would like to spend less time in their cars, and 72% say that they have no choice but to drive as much as they do. 74% say that they would still prefer to drive even if they had other choices which still leaves 26% who would really like to be doing things differently. There are also lots of people who would like to usually drive, but maybe not always drive.

This post is based on a report (PDF) by Public Opinion Strategies, a public research firm with ties to the Republican party. That actually makes this report pretty convincing as the bias of the researchers would be to downplay support for public transportation. We can see this bias at work in the question where they ask voters in Omaha how much money should be spent on various forms of transportation. POS did not include public transportation in that question. They also conflated bus and pedestrian infrastructure even though voters obviously distinguish these two things. For example, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings are the second highest transportation priority for the people who took this study while bike infrastructure is the lowest.

On the other hand, the survey takers only asked people if they would support increasing funding for public transportation. 72% said they wanted public transportation to be increased, and 57% said that they would be willing to pay more taxes to do so. As far as I can tell, voters were not asked if they would be willing to pay more taxes to fund sidewalks or new roads.

I know that DRCOG did a similar survey in metro Denver, although I do not think think it was as extensive. I think that the people that they surveyed thought that walkability was very important, more important than for the people of Omaha. I would like to compare the two studies to see how they are different.

What Can We Do to Save the Southwest Chief?

Trinidad, CO

It is a good thing that people have started to organize to save the Southwest Chief because it looks like the entire route might be in danger. Congress has not given Amtrak the money that it needs to run its trains, so, as Fred Frailey points out, Amtrak may have to stop running some of its long-distance routes. He not only points out the five routes that lose the most money (Sunset Limited, Cardinal, Silver Star, Crescent, and Southwest Chief), he and commenters on his article point out that external factors influence how much a line loses money.

In the comments to Mr. Frailey's piece, people discuss both the fact that the Southwest Chief loses money because it is responsible for a greater percentage of maintenance of the track that it runs on than other long-distance routes, and the fact that the Cardinal and Sunset Limited both need large subsidies because not running daily only cuts a small portion of costs. Basically, there are fixed costs to running any route and to using any piece of track. If you double the number of trains that use a particular track, you do not double the costs to maintain that track. If you double the number of passenger trains that run on a particular route, you do not have to double the number of people that you need to hire to sell tickets and take care of passengers.

The Southwest Chief runs at 90% capacity through Colorado, so we can't sell more tickets to raise more money.

There are two things that we could do to increase revenue on this track.

For one, the states where this train runs could join together and fund a second daily train. Kansas is one of the states that is being asked to chip in to help fix the track, and so far they have not been very enthusiastic. Maybe that is because the Southwest Chief does not really work for the people of eastern Kansas. A lot of people get on the train for long-distance trips in Missouri which does not leave a lot of tickets for people in Kansas. And the train runs at night which means that it is not convenient for people who want to travel from Garden City to Hutchinson. A second train that would run through Kansas during the day would solve that problem. This would increase revenue more than costs.

We could also take action to increase freight on the line. If the BNSF abandons the line that runs through New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas, those states could encourage a Class 3 railroad to carry small loads of freight. It is my understanding that the state of Kansas already assists these kinds of carriers on other lines because they save the state money on road repairs. We could start looking into making it possible for refrigerated trains to run in Colorado which would make it easier to ship fresh foods, like cantaloupe, to market. Other states do so, why not us?


What do you think we should do to save the Southwest Chief and to make better use of the tracks that it runs on?

Going to Southern Colorado by Bus

Arrow/Black Hills Stage Lines runs a daily bus south from Denver Union Station to the following towns in central Colorado: Pine Junction, Grant, Jefferson, Fairplay, Buena Vista, Salida, Poncha Springs, Villa Grove, Moffat, and Alamosa. The Pine Junction stop is at the RTD Park-n-Ride, but RTD buses that run from here only run during rush hour. Also, it appears that the Fairplay stop is not actually in Fairplay.

This route starts in Main Street in Alamosa at 6:20 am, arrives in Salida at 7:50 am, and arrives at Union Station at 11:05 before continuing on to Denver's Greyhound Station. The afternoon bus leaves Union Station at 2:10 pm, leaves Salida at 5:20 pm, and ends in Alamosa at 6:45 pm. Currently, this bus runs daily; a roundtrip ticket costs $77.10. Tickets can only be bought online.

Passengers can transfer to buses for Gunnison or Pueblo in Salida.

I believe that the buses stop in front of Union Station rather than Amtrak's temporary station.