Denver RTD granted extension of waiver for university rail line ops
The agency and its contract builder and operator Denver Transit Partners received an extension of their waiver from the FRA, allowing for continued operation of University of Colorado A Line and B Line.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has granted the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) and its contract builder and operator Denver Transit Partners (DTP) an extension of their waiver, allowing for continued operation of University of Colorado A Line and B Line.
Under the waiver extension, FRA noted that DTP must implement the items contained in the plan that was presented to FRA staff last Friday, Oct. 28 in Washington, D.C. In addition, RTD and DTP will hold twice-weekly progress meetings with the FRA Region 6 staff and will schedule monthly face-to-face progress meetings with the FRA in Washington, D.C.
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“We greatly appreciate the FRA granting the waiver extension, which is the direct result of the excellent working relationship between FRA, RTD and DTP," said RTD General Manager and CEO Dave Genova. "The University of Colorado A Line and the B Line trains have and will continue to operate safely while the remaining crossing issues are being addressed. We also appreciate that our passengers have continued to embrace our commuter rail service, as we are already exceeding our ridership projections for the end of the first year of operation for both lines."
The University of Colorado A Line has average weekday ridership of 18,800 passengers, exceeding first-year-end projections of 18,600 passengers; the B Line has 1,480 daily passengers, well ahead of the first-year-end projection of 800 passengers.
Since opening in April, the University of Colorado A Line has operated with flaggers at each of the crossings to monitor and control traffic in case the gates stay down too long. The B Line, which opened in July, had a flagger in place at the one crossing on that line. The flaggers will remain in place until all actions are completed to correct crossing gate down time and other issues.
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