Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

Neighborhood wants no FasTracks station near school

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 29, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

More Local News

More stories »

A group of Thornton residents wants RTD to scrap plans to put a FasTracks station at 144th Avenue and York Street, saying they fear for the safety of children at nearby Rocky Top Middle School.

FasTracks' North Metro Corridor, an 18-mile commuter rail project from Denver Union Station to 162nd Avenue, would be built along a lightly used Union Pacific freight line winding behind homes and schools as it between York Street and Colorado Boulevard.

The rail route passes other schools along the way, including some that support nearby stations. But, the residents near Rocky Top have started an online petition to protest the 144th Avenue station.

"Children will not only have easy access to the station, but will need to pass through the main intersection where this station is proposed to get to school," the petition reads. "Additionally, students will have to pass by and are likely to walk through the parking lot to get to school, exposing them to the dangers and crime that have historically been linked to Park-n-Ride locations throughout the state."

RTD denies its park-n-Rides have been hotbeds of crime. It says it will line the North Metro Corridor with a six-foot fence.

That doesn't satisfy residents.

"There are countless kids that cross these tracks daily to get to school," said Jen Keenan, one of the organizers of the protest. "Putting a chain link fence up is not likely to stop them. We are talking about early teenage boys and girls."

Gene Putman, Thornton's transportation planner, said the 144th Avenue station has been on the city's radar since 2000, when the commuter line was in the planning stages.

Neither Rocky Top Middle School, which opened in fall 2004, nor any of the homes in that area, existed at the time.

"We are currently working with RTD on the station and its location," Putman said. "We want to make sure we can address some of the residents' concerns if we can. But right now, the numbers show that with the development that's occurring in that area, by 2015 there's going to be a really heavy passenger demand that will need a station there."