The steel has been laid and the concrete is set, but trains won’t return to central downtown Denver for nearly a month.
The Regional Transportation District last week trumpeted the “ahead of schedule” completion of the first phase of its Downtown Rail Reconstruction Project that rebuilt five intersections over the summer. But, RTD’s press release also noted that the D, H and L lines won’t resume service into central downtown until Sept. 29 as originally planned.
That’s because the work isn’t yet done.
The agency must first do safety tests on the rebuilt tracks, RTD spokeswoman Marta Sipeki told CPR News in an email.
“Additionally, the agency will perform maintenance to overhead electrical wires, as well as address preventative maintenance repairs across the rail network,” she wrote.
The press release also cited its scheduling system in explaining why the early finish doesn’t mean an early return to normalcy for passengers. “Employee schedules have already been set through the end of September,” the release stated.
RTD’s driver’s union took that statement as the agency blaming it for not being able to restore service early. ATU-1001 President Lance Longenbohn said RTD executives never asked him if schedule adjustments were possible.
“They could have come to me and said, ‘Hey, this is going to get done early. How can we restore some service downtown?’" he said. “Instead I got to find out through a press release that the downtown is done early.”
“It’s just f------ b-------,” he added.
When the schedule does change on Sept. 29, riders can expect increased service across the light rail network. RTD recently finished another disruptive maintenance project along the E, H and R lines.
But construction crews will return to downtown for more rail repair work next summer, RTD officials say.
