Last I heard it was still in the works but again, it has taken/will take years to get this to happen, so no news since a year ago shouldn't be a surprise. I believe it took a decade to get the Denver - Tokyo nonstop to reality.

According to a recent article about the new nonstop to Dublin that will launch in the spring, Aer Lingus evaluated the Denver route for six years before deciding to go for it, and that was probably after Denver had pitched the idea to them for a few years.

FYI, here's the latest international nonstop destinations list from DEN (current and soon-to-launch):

• Tokyo-Narita, Japan (NRT)
• Calgary, Canada (YYC)
• Edmonton, Canada (YEG)
• Montreal, Canada (YUL)
• Toronto, Canada (YYZ)
• Vancouver, Canada (YVR)
• Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (GCM)
• Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ)
• Nassau, Bahamas (NAS)
• Belize City, Belize (BZE)
• Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR)
• Panama City, Panama (PTY)
• Roatan, Honduras (RTB)
• San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)
• Dublin, Ireland (DUB)
• London-Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR)
• Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
• Munich, Germany (MUC)
• Paris, France (CDG)
• Reykjavik, Iceland (KEF)
• Zurich, Switzerland (ZRH)
• Cancun, Mexico (CUN)
• Cozumel, Mexico (CZM)
• Chihuahua, Mexico (CUU)
• Guadalajara, Mexico (GDL)
• Mexico City, Mexico (MEX)
• Monterrey, Mexico (MTY)
• Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR)
• San Jose del Cabo, Mexico (SJD)

With respect to only UAL:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/20/why-...r-airport.html
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The number of international flights out of DEN is very impressive.

PHX would love to have some of those routes. Sky Harbor has flights to London and Frankfurt but otherwise lots of flights to Mexico and Canada. Interestingly, I've had people from Toronto tell me it's cheaper to fly from Toronto to Phoenix than Vancouver BC.

The problem down here is that Phoenix is a short hop to LAX and two hops to DFW both which have lots of international flights. DFW is the city that has really grown internationally right along with their growth of population and HQ's for lots of companies.

For being in Flyover country and it's size DEN's international service is very impressive.

You need to add Winnipeg, Canada (YWG) to this list.

I know they don’t have any nonstop flights to Tel Aviv, Dubai, AUH, Kingston, IST, HKG, BKK, SIN, AMM, CAI, Madrid, Doha, Athens, Lisbon, Osaka, Nagoya, PPT, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Lima, and Santiago, Chile.

Denver International Airport will receive another $26 million in a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to replace its outdated baggage handling system

https://kdvr.com/news/local/another-...edium=referral

FRA's Long Distance Reccomendations would create quite a hub of Denver:

This is rather interesting and fun

The 10 Most Bikeable Cities in the U.S., Ranked
February 8, 2024 by Jamie Forbes

Denver (read metro) just edged out Seattle for 5th place. Apparently the difference was it's easier to bike in mountain terrain than in Seattle's lakes.

5. Denver, CO
The Top Ten Cities

1. Minneapolis, MN
2. Portland, OR
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Denver, CO
   
6. Seattle, WA
7. Long Beach, CA
8. Washington, D.C.
9. Boston, MA
10. New York, NY

Denver RTD is So Lucky

I happen to run across an update to Seattle's Sound Transit in Axios Seattle.
The Total Per Mile cost would be $560 million based on these cost figures.

I updated/double checked RTD rail costs

A) "FasTracks, RTD has completed 78 miles and spent $5.6 billion." (per the Denver Post)
B) The 2.3-mile Southeast Rail Line Extension cost $233.1 million. (pricey)
C) Added together both cost $5.833 billion for 80.3 miles.
D) The Per Mile cost was $72.64 million per mile.

Note: RTD now has a total of 113 miles of rail including previously built lines. Add an additional $1 billion of cost for those and the whole dang 113 miles cost ~ $60 million per mile. Also note that FasTracks included the Flatiron Flyer which I didn't bother to cost out.

Seattle is lucky too

You get what you pay for and Sound Transit is a high quality system. Also they've had to absorb post pandemic inflation costs for some projects under construction as well as projects that hadn't yet started.

Consider Austin's Project Connect

They're in the middle of the NEPA process and the latest is that their 9.8 miles of light rail will cost in the neighborhood of $5 billion or $510 per mile. Their project sounds closer to Denver quality then Seattle quality.

There's certainly a cost difference, but dollars from 2010 (for example) are very different from dollars in 2030.

No Doubt
And yes this is important since incomes and tax revenues have also risen.

But to hear the RTD crowd complain over the burden of paying off bonds it's a good thing that they didn't have to spend any more than they did.

Side topic:

In 2016 Phoenix Metro rail added a ~ 3-mile extension on the north end of the segment that runs north-south. It's on the east side of I-17. For more than a decade PHX has been offering incentives to developers to redevelop Metro-Center Mall which was state of the art - back in 1975. It's on the west side of I-17 and developers wanted a light rail extension over I-17 to the Mall. End of January they started service on a 1.6 mile extension/bridge for $401 million - pricey. Driving north-south along the I-17 freeway the sides of the bridge have a continuous line of LED light that changes colors. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen along a freeway.

I don't normally Uber in that area but I have already picked up two Pax at the station where the new extension turns to go west and provided last mile service.

Back to Denver and Seattle

Both cities benefit from dedicated tax revenue for building and operating their systems. Many of the legacy systems relied heavily on farebox revenue and are running scared over how to support their system when the American Recovery money runs out end of 2024, given their ridership is still depressed. Boston is currently under FTA supervision needing to cure safety hazards. Recent report says they're making progress.

RTD has also been fortunate to use iija $'s to cure deferred maintenance on the original ~ 35 miles of light rail.

Why do you consider being close to LAX a problem? I consider that a nice benefit to have great service to APAC and the Middle East so close. If I’m traveling to LA I avoid LAX, I consider it only for international travel.

PHX is adding Paris direct later this year and a bunch of chatter on Asia given the TSMC presence/demand. They’re currently chartering service to Asia for the company.

Well, international flights was the topic.

Well said!

It's not just TSMC; Sunlit Chemical, a leading semiconductor supplier based in Taiwan, has begun construction on a plant near the Deer Valley Airport in north Phoenix. There will be other Taiwanese companies setting up shop in PHX. Also Tempe-based Amkor said it will build a new $2 billion facility to package and test chips produced for Apple Inc. at the nearby Taiwan Semiconductor complex.

Speaking of the Deer Valley Airport I've picked up several Asian guys learning to fly, not necessarily connected to TSMC. (I do rideshare)

New Amtrak route proposed between Seattle and Denver

https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/02/...thwest-routes/
Color me skeptical but it never hurts to dream and plan; who can predict the future?

"Find some thousand-mile routes from 50 years ago" wouldn't have been my first choice for planning Amtrak expansions. But if that's what the legislation requires :shrug:

My first choice, recognizing that intra-state routes will be led by the states, would've been to look for corridors that:

1. Crossed state lines
2. Are <300 miles long
3. Connect major cities on either end with several small cities between

I'd be tempted to just bust out a map of megaregions and try to connect any adjacent city pairs inside a single megaregion, except experience shows you need rural areas to support the plans.

I know you're actually in NoVA -- but Michael Schaffer/Politico Mag has a quite good piece about D.C. including some discussion about transit.
.

I live in DC. I work in Nova, about 1 mile from the DC border. I often write about both.

Everyone recognizes the days of office ghettos being cash cows are probably over. And everyone also recognizes that residential demand remains through the roof. That's a recipe for budget corrections and rethinking; it merits serious consideration, openness to new ideas, and shifts in plans. But it's not remotely similar to the city-emptying 80s.

Nicely written article!
Nothing like a little Amazon magic (and Boeing) and I'm sure the masterplan was key to their decisions.

I picked this as the highlight and good advice for Denver too.
I wouldn't disagree with the "clickbait" but as often the case the headline is only lightly related to the article which I thought on the positive side but also a balanced view.

https://x.com/cprwarner/status/1775271641419031018?s=20

Denver Airport is expected to announce tomorrow the longest non-stop flight yet, and a new airline. Current guesses are Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa.

In addition to Istanbul, which is starting at just 3 rotations a week, we are now getting Paris with Air France year round, rather than just in the summer.

Summit Stage back to 30 min frequency
 

While not Denver, this can support easier transit around Summit County and connections from Bustang and Pegasus.

Summit Stage, Summit County’s free bus system, restores 30-minute service across various routes for first time since 2021. Officials say they’ve overcome staffing, fleet issues that have previously kept them from running buses more frequently.

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/summ...ee-bus-update/