After Decades of Sprawl, Density Comes to Denver

Last week transportation officials in Denver made a trial run of the new West Rail Line — a 12-mile, $707 million light rail line expected to serve some 20,000 riders a day. The "W" line holds great promise for Denver's western corridor (except, perhaps, for too much emphasis on park-and-ride facilities), but it has even greater significance for the city at large. It's the first rail line to be finished of the massive "FasTracks" regional transit program that's set to reshape the entire metropolitan area.

FasTracks is a multi-billion dollar regional plan financed by a 4-cent sales tax approved by voters 57-43 back in 2004. The program aims to expand transit service in three existing corridors, create new service in six other corridors, and develop Denver's Union Station into a multi-modal regional transportation hub. (It also wants to maintain transportation equity.) But FasTracks is more than a transit plan: it's also a land use initiative with an intense focus on transit-oriented development and an ultimate goal of transforming Denver into a more sustainable city.