Passenger Trains > Light Rail Openings

Does anyone know the opening dates of the light rail extensions in Denver (SE line) and Sacramento (Amtrak Station)?

In Sacramento, the plan was to try to have the construction to the Amtrak Station complete by the end of September to allow six weeks for testing and then have the line open to revenue service by the middle of November, in time for the busy Thanksgiving travel season.

The Denver Transit site shows the next opening to be in 60 days, on November 17.

Thank you all!! Just trip planning!

There will be four new routes: Lincoln to Union Station, Lincoln to 18th and California, Nine Mile to 18th and California Lincoln to Nine Mile. The first three route will use existing trackage beyond Broadway. The fourth stays totally on the new trackage.
The media types have already gotten a free ride and vehicles are being tested now.

RTD is hiring however you will need to drive a bus for two years with the require early morning and late-night runs before you can get promoted to light rail. You will need to pass the DOT physical. They will train you for a CDL Class B license with a bus endorsement. You start at about $14/hr and go to about $21/hr.
There is no additional license beyond your CDL. RTD will certify you to run light rail. Last time I rode a supervisor was on board, training new motormen and motorwomen.

I was at Sacto Union Station last week; they were still digging and grading. Some poles were up, but no trackage.

Sacramento opening - December 8th.

Anybody care to speculate as to what the Sacramento light rail right in the station, will do to Capitol and San Joaquin ridership? It sure makes for an easy transfer. Also, which of three existing lines will terminate at the station? Now if only the line to the airport can be built.

The Folsom line will be extended to the Amtrak Station. The Meadowview Line will continue to be interlined with Watt/I-80 as at present.

If and when a line is built to Natomas and the airport, it will be an extension from the Amtrak Station.

Having the Folsom line terminate at the station makes good sense as it is by far the longest of the three lines.

Here's an article [rather long] from The Sacramento Business Journal regarding SacRT light rail:

Stretching the system:
Regional Transit continues its push to extend light- rail service to the Amtrak passenger depot at the downtown railyard. But rainy weather last winter and rising construction costs have led to delays and a shortage of funding.

One of the shortest additions to Sacramento's light-rail system could become one of the most significant when it's done in December.

The Sacramento Regional Transit District plans to open a half-mile extension bringing light rail to the Amtrak passenger depot at the Union Pacific railyard, now known as the Sacramento Valley Station.

"You'll be able to get off our train and walk maybe 30 feet and board a Capitol Corridor train," said Mike Wiley, RT deputy general manager. That makes it possible to ride the rails all the way from Folsom to San Jose, or connect with other Amtrak routes.

But the future is fuzzier for connecting light rail to the region's other major transportation hub, Sacramento International Airport.
The plans are there, but the money isn't. At least not yet. To get it, RT expects to ask Sacramento County voters to tax themselves some more.

Slipping behind schedule
RT's light-rail system has had a series of upgrades since the original 18.7 miles of track opened in 1987. At the end of this year, the system will have grown to just under 40 miles. It is carrying more than five times the passengers it did in 1987, Wiley said, nearly 55,000 a day.

The two biggest additions in recent years were the southern line to Meadowview Road in 2003, and the Folsom extension 11 months ago.
The Meadowview line was finished on schedule and under budget, Wiley said. But a double-whammy of steeply rising prices and bad weather made life tougher after that.

Strong overseas demand for steel and concrete, particularly in China, pushed prices through the roof. The cost of concrete doubled in the space of a couple of years, Wiley said. That's especially bad news for RT. Since 1994 it has used all-concrete crossties, and the downtown track is embedded in solid concrete.

The good part, Wiley said , is "we have funded all the cost increases without robbing from other projects we had under way."

What RT couldn't control was the weather. The Sacramento Valley Station connection was supposed to have been finished this past April. What got in the way was one of the wettest winters on record. Construction crews had to relocate underground utilities to build the connection, and the excavations would fill with rainwater.

"The way the storms came was very problematic as well," Wiley said. "Just about the time everything dried out to the level that we could get the contractors in, it would rain again."

In addition, many of the utility lines were not where the maps said they would be, and the list included everything that runs under Sacramento's streets: water mains, sewers, gas lines, electric cable, fiber optics and more. Crews also uncovered Native American remains, so work had to stop while consultants reviewed the finds.

Minor moves
The new platforms at the Sacramento Valley station will be only temporary. At some point, the Union Pacific tracks are to be realigned, making it easier for freight trains to come through town. When that happens, the light-rail tracks will have to follow suit. RT knew this going in and planned the new structures to be as portable as possible.

All landscaping will be in above-ground planters that can be moved by a fork-lift, Wiley said. Likewise, benches and shelters can be picked up and relocated. Even the track can be ripped out and reassembled. When that will happen is unclear.

"The track relocation is part of negotiations that are going on between Union Pacific Railroad and Thomas Enterprises," said Fran Halbakken, operations manager for the city of Sacramento's Transportation Department. The current Thomas proposal for the first phase of railyard work, including the realignment, would place the job somewhere between 2007 and 2010, she said.

In the meantime, RT has other tweaks planned. It will spend the next 18 months building a light-rail bridge over Watt Avenue at Folsom Boulevard. That's intended to make it easier to run limited express service from Folsom, Wiley said. Likewise, RT bought the former site of a Lumberjack store on Arden way so it could straighten out track for limited express service on the northeast corridor.

A clear path south
While that work is under way, RT also is looking south toward Cosumnes River College. By early December, final environmental reports should be ready for a 4-mile extension of the Meadowview line to the college campus, including four new stations. The $226 million project has all the local funding in place, Wiley said, and RT hopes to get a decision on the federal portion by April of next year.

"We expect to begin funding design by about this time next year, move into construction by the middle of 2008, and have it operational by 2010," Wiley said.

RT is ahead of the game in one aspect. It already has the additional rail cars, bought at a bargain rate from the Valley Transit Authority in San Jose. The VTA decided to switch to a low-floor car design and was selling off 50 old-style cars. The only systems where they would fit were in Sacramento and Salt Lake City, Wiley said. So the two cities joined forces and bargained down the price. Even with the needed modifications and upgrades, RT got its cars for about 20 cents on the dollar compared to new equipment, Wiley said.

A rocky road north
RT also has dreams of going north to Sacramento International Airport. In a change of attitude from years past, Wiley said, the airport now embraces the idea of a public transit connection, and has brought RT onto the team planning to revamp Terminal B.

"We just entered into an agreement with the airport where they are paying us $1 million to do all the design work to incorporate light rail," Wiley said. "It will be designed from where we enter the airport property and into the new terminal." Reaching the airport property, however, may take years for RT.

The so-called DNA line -- for Downtown-Natomas-Airport -- won't get any farther than the American River on the current budget. The Measure A renewal approved in 2004 included only $50 million for the DNA line, while a bridge over the American is projected to cost $60 million to $80 million. "It's no secret," Wiley said. "We have made it clear at some point we will have to go back to the voters.
"We have suggested it could be as early as 2008."

The most likely request will be for another hike in the sales tax. But earlier measures already have raised the rate to 7.75 percent in Sacramento County, and a proposal to help fund a new basketball arena would push it to 8 percent. "Do you take it up to 8.25 or 8.5? I'm already hearing some push-back on the arena deal," said Seann Rooney, executive director of the local advocacy group Friends of Light Rail. "But other areas have gone a little higher," he said. "The Bay Area has gone higher with BART, so there is some precedent."

Some transit advocates are upset the Measure A renewal didn't ask for more money up front. "There was concern that the voters would only want to do it one time," Rooney said. "It's tough to gauge."

RT hopes to at least have a new master plan adopted by next summer so there will be a clear vision, Wiley said. A draft environmental report should be done by April. Right-of-way is already being dedicated in North and South Natomas.

"Airports are, by and large, a part of the existing transportation system of rubber tires on paving, and as such are usually well-linked by freeways, buses, shuttles, rental cars and private automobiles," said Dave Dobbs, publisher of Light Rail Now in Austin, Texas. "Needless to say, this massive infrastructure often makes after-the-airport rail connections expensive and less convenient than built-in-from-the-start links," he said.

Airport connections are rarely a priority when light-rail systems are first built, but many large cities have added them as their systems mature, noted Dobbs. Cities with links include Baltimore, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Portland, and St. Louis. In addition, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco have heavy-rail connections to their airports. Portland's tactic for funding its light -rail link sounds reminiscent of the way some projects have been developed in North Natomas in the past.

"Bechtel basically built the light-rail extension to Portland's airport in order to develop adjacent land," Dobbs said. "Mount Hood station now has a business park and hotel next to it, and Cascade Station, which currently is a closed-door stop, will have new Ikea store in 2007."

While no such proposals are on the table in Sacramento, RT's Wiley noted interest has grown considerably in developing land around light-rail stations, and developers in Natomas have already donated acreage for the creation of park-and-ride lots.

Having the direct link from LRT to the Amtrak station can only be helpful, and corrects an unfortunate chapter from the past, starting with BART, when rail transit was being built at a time when intercity rail was in sharp decline.

Whether it will generate large numbers of Amtrak passengers remains to be seen. Amtrak, like airports, rely on private passenger auto access, especially with luggage etc. Plus, the time factor comes into play. However, as the Capitol Corridor carries a lot of daytime visitors, the easy access to a main rail transit route that is easy to figure out and goes to the Capitol is a plus.

And, it will be free to Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin riders who request a transit pass from the conductor.

Similar to Sacramento, the San Jose Diridon station recently was connected to the Santa Clara LRT system, and offers easy transit access to downtown, and up to Mountain View. Ridership was spartan on a recent Sunday, when LRT was running on 30 minute headways, pointing out that just building a line doesn't always result in instant success. Thinking more positively, I'm sure in 30 or 50 years the line will have proven itself, as development patterns change and more density results. There are already new apartments and condos adjacent to the San Jose station, on land that was little used in recent years.

and its on the sp