Fastracks is the voter supported mass transit plan covering much of the Denver Metro Area. The plan includes additional light rail, commuter 
rail and bus mass transit. Since it’s approval four years ago the estimated cost of the program has skyrocketed from $4.7 Billion to over $6.5 Billion. Some estimates I have seen have the cost near $8 Billion. The funding for the project is to come from a number of sources including the voter approved tax and transportation funds from the Federal Government. In this Boulder Daily Camera Article dated October 29th, it was stated that there is still much uncertainty to the availability of funds from the Federal Government and that the commuter rail project that will link Longmont and Boulder to Downtown Denver is in question. The estimated completion for the project is slated for 2015 if all proceeds as planned.
I heard on the radio that over 160 properties were slated for complete or partial eminent domain (public taking of private property for a public project) in order to complete the Denver to Golden light rail line. The full FasTracks story can be found at the official Fastracks website
In related news the original Boulder Depot has been moved to the future home of the transit village in the land owned by the city behind Pollard Motors on Pearl and 30th Street. The attached photo shows the depot after the move. The city would certainly need to do some backtracking if the commuter rail project does not get funded. Would the Pollard site still be worth $10 million if commuter rail didn’t come to Boulder? I don’t think a transit village will work without the transit. We will have to wait to see what happens.
I was at a meeting the other day when RTD board members were there The question was asked’How long does take to get from the boulder transit village to union station? The answer was about 47 minutes. The follow up question was ‘And how long will it take on light rail?There was a long pause and the RTD board member said,”about 47 minutes.”So now that begs the question,”Why light rail and not just more buses that run on time and are more efficient?When will this run away spending end?The tax payers are going to get hip at ome point and say enough is enough.The politicians are going to start worring about there jobs and the government is going to ru n out of money if we dont start thinking these thing out.