Passenger Trains > Denver RTD Monday

Regional Transportation District at Union Station

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5. Still flagging crossings; photographed from Amtrak train 5 California Zephyr

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The G Line opened at the end of April. Quiet Zones have been approved and are in use, but they have not been given the go ahead to remove the flaggers on the G. Most of the flaggers are gone from the A Line, and QZs are in place except for a couple of crossings. Took advantage of the free rides on the G Line last week. It is a really nice 25-30 minute trip from Ward Rd. to DUS. The Silverliners (even though RTD doesn't call them that) are very comfortable and there are some nice opportunities to railfan along the route. 

It is nice seeing so much rail activity at Union Station these days, even if it is kind of homogenous. RTD has started running test trains on the N Line, so there should be even more activity coming in and out of the station. 

Where's the people?

What is the purpose of the framework extending out to each side on the end of the cars?

Ordinarily on subway cars, but increasingly on commuter rail cars, especially MUs. They are called pantograph gates. When mid-train, they prevent someone from falling in the gap between the cars, and also discourages people from hopping off the platform onto the threshold plates between the cars to get in (yes, people are that stupid and do it, though some pay the ultimate price). 

Duna Wrote:
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> Where's the people?

Ha!  That's a reasonable question.  But there's a reasonable answer.  There were no doubt plenty of folks around the station but the photographer's location means that you weren't going to see many of them.  Photos 1-2 show an inbound A-Line train arriving from the airport on Track 1.  The photographer is standing close to the end of the platform for Track 2 so all the station activity is going to be behind him (or behind the train in Pic 2).

Photos 3-4 show one of the spare trains that are kept on Track 3 (a relatively short stub track good for about 6 cars).  Track 3 is very, very rarely used for loading/unloading passengers and that's only if there's an issue with a train on Tracks 1 or 2 that requires a last-minute equipment substitution.

So no reason to panic.  People do ride the RTD trains in Denver.

niagara484