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For those of you not in the know. For being a mid sized city, Denver has phenomenal public transportation. The light rail in particular kicks butt. Any other mid sized cities giving it a run for its money?
Denver has a great light-rail system. The coverage is getting better also and several new lines have opened or are opening this year.
I think Salt Lake City has much better rail for it's size however. They have several light-rail lines in Salt Lake County and then a very large commuter rail system from Ogden to Provo that runs very frequently.
San Diego also a has good rail network and is similar in size to Denver.
I'd say SLC and especially Portland do a much better job moving people around the city. Denver's system is obviously branching out further and becoming more extensive, but for the most part the system is aimed at taking commuters in and out of the suburbs, not moving them around points in the city. It's really too bad projects like the Colfax Streetcar never gained traction.
Portland and San Diego for sure. SLC, St Louis, Sacramento and MSP (if you can call it a mid-sized city) are all in the same tier I would think...though perhaps a little behind.
Who cares? Street cars are a massive infrastructure investment that are less efficient for transporting people than buses. They give people in cities with poor public transit something to be proud of.
If you're not going to bury it or elevate it, there's no reason to build a light rail system.
Who cares? Street cars are a massive infrastructure investment that are less efficient for transporting people than buses. They give people in cities with poor public transit something to be proud of.
If you're not going to bury it or elevate it, there's no reason to build a light rail system.
This post made me lol. Light rails do elevate and they are efficient, much better than busses, and awesome.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Denver's FasTacks rail expansion has certainly been impressive as by the end of this year it will be possible to ride a train into the city from most directions from all over the metro area. I'm looking forward to using the recently opened Airport line next time I fly in. No doubt downtown and LoDo have clearly benefited from all the new transit infrastructure and the new Union Station multi-nodal transit hub. Downtown Denver is starting to feel a lot more like a big city downtown in recent years with all the new dense urban development around Union Station.
However where Denver is falling short is intra-city rail. Denver's current rail system is mostly park and ride to get commuters in and out of the city. If one wants to explore other popular neighborhoods in the city like Cherry Creek, Highlands, Capital Hill, or the Broadway corridor there is no rail service to get to any of these areas and no solid plans for any future service. They should construct new urban rail lines along Colorado Blvd (a traffic nightmare) and another one along Colfax Ave. I dare say, just build a subway along these corridors. It will be cheaper to build them now than in the future.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 05-03-2016 at 07:15 PM..
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