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This Speakout has not been edited.

By Paula Nikolai

In November of 2004 Colorado voters approved FasTracks at a price tag of 4.7 billion dollars. We approved this because we believe in smart transportation and in the mission of our Regional Transportation District. However, I am concerned about RTD’s process in implementing FasTracks. I am concerned that the implementation is not compatible with what we approved in 2004. RTD is paying Union Pacific Railroad to relocate its yards to the Brighton and Fort Lupton region.

The communities of Brighton, Henderson, and Commerce City are already crippled by UPRR trains. How can RTD encourage this relocation? Doesn’t this directly conflict with RTD’s mission in serving our transportation needs? Is this what we voted for? Did we in actuality vote to pay for UPRR’s relocation so that we would be further immobilized? Is RTD overseeing the use of these funds in a manner consistent with the vote placed before us in 2004?

UPRR for over twenty years has considered moving to Aurora. That area is specifically being designed to accommodate UPRR: about 6 miles from Interstate 70 as well as E-470, convenient to Denver International Airport, Front Range Airport, and tailoring itself to meet the needs of the federally funded Ports to Planes project. This project is NAFTA based and its purpose being to transport truck freight out of Mexico into the United States and Canada. The federal funds will “beef up” four to five of our major highways including Interstate 70.

Additionally, the relocation of UPRR to Aurora would be “a major economic investment in Colorado", said Tom Norton, the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. The CDOT study found that $2.3 billion in direct economic benefits to the Front Range included $332 million in reduced auto and truck travel delays at railroad crossings as well as 6,000 new jobs. Shouldn’t RTD reallocate the $140 million given to UPRR? Especially as FasTracks is $1 billion over budget and RTD another $1 billion deficit in revenue.

Doesn’t RTD have an obligation to make sure our money which we earmarked for smart transportation goes to serve that purpose? RTD, if UPRR relocates to our cities, we will be so transportationally crippled that we will not have reliable access to FasTracks, our hospitals, our schools, and our jobs. If more money is needed for FasTracks, as I believe it will be, we will not be able to help and why should we?

I believe in RTD and am appealing to its board members to make sure our money is spent responsibly. As a teenager, I ran to catch RTD buses from Wheat Ridge to North Denver. I remember how anxiously I awaited the great heaters in the bus on cold winter days. I remember tokens and transfers and the welcoming smiles from the drivers and the occasional “wake up — its the end of the line nudge.” I remember RTD. I believe in RTD. I pay for RTD. Board members of RTD, here is a friendly “wake up nudge” as for the citizens along the Highway 85 corridor, Union Pacific Railroad is kicking us off the bus.

Let us not believe that the hierarchy in this country is: Railroad, ditch companies, and then God. Let us not be a country oppressed under one railroad with liberal stock dividends for some. RTD, time is crucial for us. Please give Union Pacific Railroad a transfer east during peak hours.

Paula Nikolai is a Brighton resident.

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