July 22, 2008

Officials must face rising costs of FasTracks

CENTENNIAL CITIZEN

Regional Transportation District officials are wrestling with the difficult task of developing strategies and tactics needed to deal with the nearly $2 billion increase in estimated cost to complete the FasTracks program by 2017.

RTD introduced the FasTracks plans in late 2003. The proposal asked voter approval for a sales-tax increase of 0.4 cents to make it possible to pay for a 12-year mass transit project that would add 119 miles of light rail and commuter rail lines, 18 miles of bus rapid transit service and expanded bus service, including suburb-to-suburb connections.

Voters approved the tax increase in November 2004 for a project scheduled to be built at a cost of $4.7 billion. However, cost estimates increased dramatically with the skyrocketing increase in fuel and the fact construction material prices have increased by more than 30 percent since then.

Also, the slow economy dropped the sales-tax collections well below estimates. The two factors combined to create a budget problem for FasTracks.

“We are victims of the skyrocketing cost of fuel and construction materials and the depressed economy that has people putting money in the gas tank instead of shopping so sales tax revenues are down,” said Cal Marsella, RTD director. “There has been talk about looking at ways to increase revenues, extending the time to complete the project or cutting the scope of some of the lines. None of those are solutions we want to accept. So, we are trying to develop a series of scenarios to present at the annual project evaluation in August.

“We want to establish priorities for each option and describe the impact each option might have. But the RTD board of directors unanimously endorse building FasTracks as designed and completing the projects on time. Now, we have to achieve those goals.”

Marsella said major factors remain unresolved, including the cost of buying or leasing right-of-way from the railroads for the commuter rail lines, completion of public-private partnerships and determining costs for construction materials.

“The resolution of those issues will have a major impact on the budget,” Marsella said. “We also hope to increase revenues through fare increases, re-evaluation of our pass programs and a plan to generate parking revenues. All those elements figure into how we will deal with the FasTracks budget issue.”

O’Neil Quinlin, RTD board representative from the area, said the budget challenge has been steadily building because of two major factors — increased costs and lower-than-expected revenues.

“I feel now we as a board need to make strategic decisions and make them soon,” he said. “We know going into the process there aren’t any good options or easy solutions. All these will be really tough decision that have an impact on people’s lives. Personally, I don’t know how this challenge will turn out.”

FasTracks projects include extending the Southwest Corridor south into Highlands Ranch and the Southeast Corridor south to Sky Ridge Medical Center. However, those two extensions are part of the final years of the project and scheduled to be completed until 2017. RTD recently purchased land from the City of Englewood on Lucent Boulevard, the planned location of the Highlands Ranch station.

Several RTD riders said they want to see FasTracks completed as planned and on time but at least two of them had different opinions of the best way to deal with the issues.

Conrad Pennington, local resident, said while he wouldn’t relish the idea, he’s willing to vote to approve paying more in sales taxes to get FasTracks up and running as planned.

“I live in Highlands Ranch and the Lucent station would be a great help to me in my commute,” he said as he waited on the platform at Mineral Station. “I work downtown but frequently have to drive to work because I have to go to Golden and to Boulder. If FasTracks is completed as planned, I could ride light rail to both areas and never have to drive downtown.”

But Sandra Blum disagrees.

“I want to see all the new lines completed on time but I don’t want to pay more or higher fares to get that done,” the Lone Tree woman said as she waited for the train at the Dry Creek station. “I voted for FasTracks and I did it partially because I felt there was promise to build this with the money provided and get it completed as scheduled. I know about rising prices. I see it every day. But RTD needs to devise a solution to get FasTracks built without taking more money out of our pockets.”

By Tom Munds
7/22/08