Union Station project funding guaranteed
Feds also guarantee funding for other FasTracks lines
Published by Denver Daily News
— February 08, 2010 — Federal Transit Administration officials swept FasTracks and Union Station supporters off their feet Friday with an announcement that “all the funding for Union Station is now secured.”
Union Station will receive a $300 million loan from the federal government to fund the $480 million redevelopment project, Peter Rogoff, FTA Administrator, announced outside the FasTracks lines at Union Station on a gorgeous afternoon.
Rogoff also announced the department’s intention to sign full-funding grant agreements of more than $1 billion for the proposed Gold Line corridor from Union Station to Wheat Ridge and the east line from Union Station to Denver International Airport.
President Obama has already proposed $40 million each for the two corridors as part of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2011.
“Make no mistake about it, the discussion is over, Union Station is going to happen,” said Rogoff to a crowd of cheers.
The Denver City Council recently guaranteed the loan with the use of general funds if necessary.
The Regional Transportation District, however, says it will cost $6.7 billion to build all of FasTracks, and will likely still ask voters to double the existing tax. Without additional revenue, FasTracks would be about $2.5 billion short, if the agency wants to complete the transit expansion project by 2017.
But the news Friday was all good for FasTracks planners, who have now crossed their last hurdle in beginning construction on the Union Station redevelopment project.
A prideful Mayor John Hickenlooper said voters should be very proud of themselves for having approved the FasTracks project in 2004.
“The voters are the ones who saw the promise and they recognized that this is something that not only will help our mobility and attract businesses, but it will also define this state as a collaborative place where we get things done, and that in the end, that will perhaps be the greatest economic part of all.”
The mayor believes the federal government is finally seeing how taxpayer dollars can be spent on collaborative efforts that benefit communities as a whole, such as building FasTracks stations along with affordable housing and at Brownfields sites.
“You are seeing a revolution in how the federal government can maximize our tax dollars into something that can really be rejoiced over,” said Hickenlooper, a Democrat who is also running for governor of Colorado.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., spoke at the event of the 10,000 jobs the FasTracks project is expected to create.
“Ten-thousand good-paying jobs for Coloradans who want to get to work, we’re gonna help pay the bills, feed the family and help parents put money away to fund their child’s education,” said Bennet.
For RTD Chief Phil Washington, the announcement Friday brings his district one step closer to seeing FasTracks trains zooming in and out of a beautiful, redesigned Union Station.
“I can see the trains, I can see them coming in to this historic Denver Union Station, I can actually see them,” he said. “I hope you can see what I can see in terms of this build-out of this great FasTracks investment initiative, and also this great historic Denver Union Station. This is going to transform this entire region.”
