If you live in Castle Rock... (Denver, Mead: taxes, price, vs.)

[Sheridan1962]

and drive to/from the Lincoln/I-25 light rail station, how long does it take you? What about in bad weather? When we were there this weekend, we timed it at around 11 minutes to go from the station to the Meadows exit in Castle Rock, but that was past rush hour. Also, is there an alternate route to get to/from the train station, perhaps via 85?

TIA for any information.

[tfox]

Starting in February, you will likely be charged $4.00 per day to park in Lincoln, since CR voted itself out of RTD and so is not a member of the RTD district.

RTD to begin charging for parking at Park-n-Ride lots : Local News : The Rocky Mountain News

The plus is that this should ease crowding in the PnR considerably. The minus is that Castle Rock commuters will be essentially left without transit service at all (except FREX), but this is a something that they did to themselves. If you do choose Castle Rock anyway you might consider FREX.

[ColoWeb]

Originally Posted by tfox

Starting in February, you will likely be charged $4.00 per day to park in Lincoln, since CR voted itself out of RTD and so is not a member of the RTD district.

RTD to begin charging for parking at Park-n-Ride lots : Local News : The Rocky Mountain News

The plus is that this should ease crowding in the PnR considerably. The minus is that Castle Rock commuters will be essentially left without transit service at all (except FREX), but this is a something that they did to themselves. If you do choose Castle Rock anyway you might consider FREX.

Wow! I did not know that. I may have been out of town for that story. How will they validate that someone is in CR vs. another place?

[2bindenver]

drivers license. registration of license plates?

[tfox]

Originally Posted by ColoWeb

Wow! I did not know that. I may have been out of town for that story. How will they validate that someone is in CR vs. another place?

License plate scans. They will scan your license plates with a camera, and query the registration database to lookup registration location.

[ColoWeb]

I see. Thanks. So if someone moved from CR to Denver they may have some issues.

[tfox]

Originally Posted by ColoWeb

I see. Thanks. So if someone moved from CR to Denver they may have some issues.

They might, but you're really supposed to update your registration upon moving anyway -- although practically no one does until their registration comes due. Once you update your registration you shouldn't have any problems.

[b.adams]

To be honest, CR never got ANYTHING from RTD in terms of service, so why half the town was paying RTD taxes was absurd anyways.

I rode the mineral to downtown lightrail for over 5 years and even rode the bus from highlands ranch to downtown for several years.

But it makes no sense to ride the lightrail from lincoln to downtown, as I can regularly drive it from Castle Rock in 35-40 minutes each morning.

If I take the lightrail, I pay $4 to park, then around $8 roundtrip for a fare for one. Then it takes 15 minutes to the PNR, then 10 minutes waiting for a train, then 10 minutes to leave, then a 38 minute trip on the train to downtown. It makes no sense to spend all the $$ and have it take over twice as long to get there.

So RTD, in its infinate stupidity is going to further reduce ridership and revenues by charging people to park at their PNR's. This will kill them, mark my words. It was already a bad deal to ride from Lincoln, now it makes no sense at all.

CR was SMART to get rid of the unfair RTD tax for getting nothing from it.
THe FREX service from CR to downtown is a lot cheaper, a lot faster and a lot better (they are actually FRIENDLY!, unlike RTD) ... and you get fee internet on the big comfortable bus ... on no stops between CR and downtown if you catch the right ones (that skip the Arapahoe PNR).

Ride FREX instead ... way better and about the same price as just parking as stupid ol' RTD.

[cowboyxjon]

a few people at my office (downtown denver) use FREX and have nothing but good things to say about it.

[b.adams]

I agree. They are actually friendly and courteous. RTD is the opposite. When you get off a FREX bus, they tell you to have a great day and act like they really appreciated you riding today. And the internet access on the bus works great ... and the buses are extremely comfy.