Alan Boles’s detailed Blue Line story on why RTD’s FasTracks train service to Boulder and Longmont is morphing instead into “bus rapid transit.” Why the huge cost runup from earlier estimates?

Tayer explained that the costs of Northwest rail had exploded largely because BNSF now insists that the existing track be re-built and that a second track be constructed along the whole route to Longmont, as well as additional sidetracks and sophisticated signal systems. He said BNSF maintains that these extensive, additional improvements are required by new federal regulations which were precipitated by the fairly recent crash of a commuter train in Los Angeles.

(BNSF being the snappy name for what was once called the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. BNSF is a wholly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.)
 

So that’s the culprit.

LINK to article in The Blue Line