Pre-pandemic review; it's a simple math problem
(but it get's complex)
The SW Corridor light rail - opened for service in July 17, 2000
TV News coverage showed the parking at Mineral Station lot (1227 spaces) full and overflowing into the neighborhoods by 7:00 A.M.
https://www.rtd-denver.com/reports-a...ight-rail-line
Quote:
Ridership has exceeded the projected forecast of 8,400 riders per weekday and averaged 17,900 riders, in April 2002, at the five stations (113 percent over projections). Total light rail system ridership was projected at 22,400 and reached a high of 41,690 average weekday boardings in September 2006.
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Overnight every mayor of every (suburban) city wanted their slice of heaven. The SW Corridor light rail was built for a song meaning mostly from federal grants. It's important to understand this 'in real time' picture for critical context.
Then T-REX happened. It's 19 miles of light rail. Two of the busiest stations outside of the city center in the whole system remain at Lincoln Station and Nine Mile Station (along with the original Mineral Station).
Fast Forward
Despite modest ridership generally,
seven light rail corridors carried
Half as much ridership as
142 bus routes in 2019.
Problem One
Light rail is (mostly) a suburb to city (downtown) system. Downtown has the highest density of employment and it's still growing. That said, downtown has (only) ~10% of the total metro employment.
Problem Two
FasTracks was a "visionary" plan. It's intent was to direct future development density patterns to along light rail lines. Essentially, they were thinking of future development in the suburbs since in the early 2000's that where most of the development was.
Life is what happens while you're making other plans
Nobody predicted the glorious surge of development downtown but it happened.
The wisdom of FasTracks
The way the lines merge coming into downtown there's essentially five corridors into downtown. There are ongoing plans for millions of $'s of TOD adding up to billions of $'s of TOD at
city-center light/commuter rail stations. Sure, it will take a couple of decades but FasTracks will prove a development density bonanza for the city center.
I happened to have walked around DUS and the DUS neighborhood. That single area along with the Trains to the Planes justifies the FasTracks investment just by itself.
Today's myopic hysteria?