G-Line Delays Are A 'Train Wreck' Says Arvada Mayor

ARVADA, CO -- Arvada and the northwest Denver suburbs wanted a commuter rail for the holidays, but all they got was a regulatory delay lasting 20 months. The long-awaited Regional Transportation District G-Line will will travel 11 miles between Union Station and Wheat Ridge, passing through northwest Denver, Adams County and Arvada, according to RTD. The new commuter line, which has been completed, features eight stations and seven new Park-and-Ride lots.

But a problem with the mistiming of grade-level crossing gates has caused what Arvada Mayor Marc Williams called a "bureaucratic stalemate" in a Dec. 15 editorial in the Denver Post. On the DIA and University A-Line commuter rail, RTD has placed human flaggers to deal with the problem for almost a year. Meanwhile, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has not signed off on the G-Line gate system. The PUC is expected to hear an appeal in spring, 2018.

Williams wrote:

Prior to allowing the appeal to proceed, state regulators were in essence giving RTD two options: keep the flaggers in place at crossings and keep the G Line in suspended animation or scrap the whole new system and start over. (This latter step would not only delay progress for years, it would violate a federal mandate for the new technology.)
Calling this a train wreck is not too strong a term.

Williams expressed Arvada's frustration at the delays in a long-promised commuter line:

Our citizens voted to raise their own taxes, embracing the promise that commuter rail holds for our quality of life, our transportation system and our economy.
It is long past time for this vision to become reality. It is time for state regulators to complete their review and let the trains roll.

Read Williams' editorial in the Denver Post here.

Image: Commuter cars via RTD