Ever see the cost of a big public project go down?

Brace yourself.

FasTracks' price tag, only recently inflated to $7.9 billion, almost certainly will show a drop in the next week or so. But it won't be as big a help to RTD as you might think, because something else also is going down.

That's RTD's revenues to pay for it.

A Fort Lupton company that was the only manufacturer of approved diesel-powered passenger cars RTD plans to use on the 41-mile Northwest Rail Corridor has closed up shop. RTD can't electrify all 41 miles between Denver, Boulder and Longmont, so it needs to find a new maker for these cars.

If you're a rider of the Route 15, RTD's East Colfax bus, you know how busy it is. Imagine if everyone on board paid to ride. It's a real cross-section of humanity. Daily commuters from professionals to minimum-wage earners. Transit-dependent folks with no other way to get around town. The sober and not-so-sober. Fare payers and scofflaws who board the bus and don't drop money in the box. It's those scofflaws that have RTD hiring off-duty Denver Police officers to ride random trips on the 15 and watch for people free-riding.

They're short $3 million but the people in the economically stressed Sun Valley community in Denver are still pressing RTD and the city to move the FasTracks West Corridor station at Federal Boulevard ablock east and north, to where the Denver Public Works garage is going to be torn down. The rub is money. RTD is willing to move the station but only if someone else covers the increased costs.The price tag: $5 million.