The Denver Post
August 17, 2010, Jeffrey Leib

RTD has new estimates of future transit ridership for the unfunded FasTracks rail lines that show boardings will be about double what the agency predicted earlier on some of the corridors. The more robust ridership numbers, however, are coming too late for rail lines that lost out in an earlier bid for federal money. Estimated ridership was one of the factors that helped determine whether FasTracks lines met "cost-effectiveness" criteria that made them eligible for federal funds. The Regional Transportation District's West Corridor light-rail line, the East Corridor commuter-rail line to Denver International Airport, and the Gold Line commuter train to Arvada/Wheat Ridge scored well in earlier ridership estimates, and all are expected to end up with federal money. The West line, now under construction, has won about $300 million in federal funding. In contrast, earlier ridership predictions helped doom hopes that the North Metro commuter-rail line to Thornton/Northglenn, the Northwest line to Boulder/Longmont, and the Interstate 225 light-rail line could win federal money. Now, the predictions of higher boardings vindicate the views of some public officials in those corridors who have long maintained that their lines were shut out of the quest for federal money because of unrealistically low estimates of transit use....

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15798437