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FasTracks, the 2004 voter-approved transit expansion plan
for the Regional Transportation District (RTD) of Denver, Colorado, is building
122 mi of commuter rail and light rail and 18 mi of bus rapid transit service,
adding 21,000 new parking spaces, redeveloping Denver Union Station, the Denver
public-private-partnership (P3) project, and redirecting bus service to better
connect the eight-county district. The plan includes a dedicated addition to
the sales tax allocated to transportation. Local, federal, and P3 funds are
also used to support the FasTracks projects.
 In P3 schemes, the facility is owned by the local
government, but a private consortium of design firms, contractors, often some
suppliers, and other firms contract to operate and maintain the facility. Three
electrified commuter rail lines and one light rail line, parts of the FasTracks
program, have opened or are scheduled to open in 2016. The RTD opened the first
electrified commuter rail line in the United States west of Chicago to revenue
service on Sunday, 24 April 2016. The line runs from Union Station in downtown
Denver to the Denver International Airport, and uses overhead catenary
energized at 25 kV 60 Hz for propulsion.
According to the RTD, it is the first new railroad line in
the United States to use positive train control (PTC), which includes all of
the regulatory requirements promulgated by the Federal Railroad Administration
(FRA) in accordance with the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. PTC is a
federal requirement for railroads in the United States that provide commuter
rail service or freight service carrying materials that are hazardous to
inhale.
U.S. railroads are in the process of rolling out PTC. Only
three other railroads in the United States preceded the RTD in putting PTC into
revenue service on portions of their systems: Southern California Metrolink,
Amtrak, and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in
the Philadelphia area. All of the major freight railroads and commuter
railroads are in the process of installing and testing PTC on portions of their
railroads, working toward a deadline of 31 December 2018.
Although Congress allowed the FRA to authorize an extension
of the original federally mandated deadline of 31 December 2015, completing the
installation of PTC on all the railroads requiring this modification will be a
monumental task. It is considered unlikely that the job can be completed
Digital Object throughout the entire United States by the end of 2020.
Full article: IEEE
Vehicular Technology Magazine, Volume 11, Number 3, September 2016
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