Facing a $2 billion FasTracks budget gap, Denver RTD execs are pursuing options to complete their expansion program- just not as quickly as planned Officials at the Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) had it all planned out in the early 2000s. Develop a regional transit program: Check. Create a program schedule to expedite the projects in the fastest way possible: Check. Obtain voter approval on a sales tax measure to pay for said program: Check. And for a few years, everything went according to plan. After Denver-area residents approved a four-tenths-cent sales tax measure in November 2004, RTD dove right into its FasTracks program, which calls for adding 119 miles of light and commuter-rail lines to the agency's current 33-mile light-rail network. The agency be gan plowing through environmen tal studies and other pre-construc tion work to launch construction on the various lines as soon as possible. RTD officials told voters it would bring rail service to the entire met ropolitan region by 2017, making FasTracks one of the largest, most ambitious transit construction projects in the United States.
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