RTD officials declared two new rail transit slow zones starting Friday – for south metro Denver trains between the Evans and Englewood stations and a stretch of the E and H lines between the University of Denver and the Colorado Boulevard stations — and over the past week removed 400 feet of damaged tracks.
A portion of the A Line train route that links Union Station downtown with Denver International Airport also will be disrupted on Wednesday, Aug. 21, agency officials announced on Friday. Train riders will be diverted onto bus shuttles from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. between Union Station and Central Park Station, then move to trains operating as usual between Central Park and DIA, officials said.
That disruption is necessary, officials said, so that railroad officials can conduct federally required safety testing where tracks cross Steele, Clayton, and Holly streets.
In the rail slow zones, train operators must slow their speeds to less than 10 miles per hour. The new south metro Denver slow zones are the latest that RTD officials have declared this summer during a maintenance catch-up blitz. Slow zones remain in place along other portions of the D,E,H and R lines. For riders, delay times depend on their trip and vary, but officials estimated about 15 to 20 extra minutes for trips on the D,E and H lines.
RTD officials plan repairs and maintenance on multiple track segments. Work crews currently are targeting the tracks between Colorado and Yale stations; County Line and Lincoln stations; Dayton and Nine Mile stations, Englewood and Oxford stations, Oxford and Littleton stations; University of Denver and Colorado stations, and the Evans and Englewood stations, according to an agency scheduling timeline.
Work crews over the past week removed 400 feet of damaged rail and installed 240 feet of new rail between the County Line and Lincoln stations, according to an agency filing on Friday to safety regulators at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Workers distributed another 980 feet of rail for installation starting next week.
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