Planes, Trains, Autos Make Moving Product Easy
Published Apr 17, 2008
Moving freight and passengers, rail is vital to the Metro North economy.
Just 30 minutes from the Denver International Airport and with interstate highways and train tracks threading through the region, Metro North is transportation rich.
And it’s about to get richer.
“We’re building 118 miles of new rail transportation in several corridors,” says Noel Busck, a board member of the Regional Transportation District for the Metro North area. The project is known as FasTracks and is funded by a voter-approved regional sales tax expected to bring in between $4 billion and $8 billion over the next 10 years.
Lines stretching out south and southeast already exist. Beginning next year, Busck says, new lines will extend to the airport and to Jefferson County. A North Metro line will stretch from downtown Denver to Commerce City, Thornton, Northglenn and part of Westminster. Another route will follow U.S. 36 from Denver to Boulder.
“Corridors should be complete by 2015,” Busck says. FasTracks officials estimate that 22,000 commuters daily will ride the two lines moving through Metro North.
Rail is also an important economic player in moving freight, with Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific moving hundreds of tons each day.
In terms of highway travel, Interstate 25 is the main arterial road, but interstates 70 and 76 also pass through parts of the region, and U.S. 36 is one of the major growth corridors. Companies dependent upon transportation have taken notice of the region’s transportation assets. Adams County has the highest concentration of trucking, transportation and distribution facilities in the state.
The largest UPS facility in Colorado is in Commerce City. The UPS District including Colorado and Wyoming handles nearly 270,000 daily deliveries, according to Tiffany Dunn, a UPS spokeswoman.
Metro North is “right in the heart of things” she says. Business, industrial and commercial areas, especially along I-70, are easily accessible.
“It’s economical here with room for us to build and grow,” she says.
That growth is not just outward, but also upward.
Lynx Aviation, a new unit of Frontier Airlines, is now based in the Metro North area. Lynx will fly routes of 650 miles or less for Frontier, which formerly farmed those flights out to other companies, including Alaska Air’s Horizon Airlines.
“We’re phasing out Horizon so we can use a subsidiary instead of an outsider,” says Joe Hodas, a Frontier spokesman. “We control customer service and save on costs.”
Story by Paul Hughes
Photo by Michael W. Bunch
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