Denver at rush hour

[nlogax]

Have been taking some well-earned downtime in Texas and Colorado this week, and I find myself in Denver for the first time in about twenty years. Union Station's rebuild and renaissance is really quite striking.

With that said, sadly the automobile still rules. Here I am during the Friday evening rush and it could be a Sunday morning..the station is devoid of crowds or anyone really needing to be anywhere in any hurry. RTD's local EMUs drift in and out on a regular basis, and there's a daily California Zephyr in each direction but that's it. Maybe this will change in time..

 

[LMS 4F]

I was at Denver in 2017 and it was one of the places that I was astounded by the lack of trains and passengers.
Vast areas of the US interior have no passenger services or at best one each way per day. Flagstaff Arizona had one each way when I was there and the eastbound service was at something like 0330 hours. Hardly condusive to encouraging use but on a service from Los Angeles to Chicago somewhere has to be called at such times.

 

[nlogax]

I was at Denver in 2017 and it was one of the places that I was astounded by the lack of trains and passengers.
Vast areas of the US interior have no passenger services or at best one each way per day. Flagstaff Arizona had one each way when I was there and the eastbound service was at something like 0330 hours. Hardly condusive to encouraging use but on a service from Los Angeles to Chicago somewhere has to be called at such times.

There's a abbreviated explanation online and detailed in book form re. why Denver hasn't take to RTD in the numbers the city hoped for;

https://denver.streetsblog.org/2019...t-useful-to-most-people-a-new-book-shows-why/

"Denver built a transit network that most people don’t use. It doesn’t go where they want to go. Trips take too long. And the primary hub, Union Station, is three-quarters of a mile from the heart of downtown’s job center." *though there's a perfectly decent free bus from Union Station all the way down 16th St

Flagstaff still has one each way, the eastbound Chief now arrives a little after 5am. Still not the most ideal hour to pick up a daily service and still an hour or two slower than driving if you want to get across to Albuquerque. Much of that disadvantage is down to BNSF's class 3 & 4 trackage...distinct lack of class 6 out west!