After leading 17 walking tours of the Denver Union Station project in 2012, I decided to take a break over the past few months. However, I’m now ready to get our 2013 tours underway. There is a LOT going on at Denver Union Station, so 2013 should be a fun year and the last full year of construction before the project opens in 2014! Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 16 at 10:00 AMÂ Â 3:00 PM for our first tour of the new year. A few days before then, I’ll post an official tour notice here on the blog.
Over the course of 2013, I’ll aim to do two tours a month, usually the first and third Saturdays of the month. However, as always, check the DenverInfill blog on Monday or Tuesday of the week in question for a post confirming the next tour date and time. Again this year, the tours are free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted at the end of the tour, with all proceeds going to the non-profit Student Chapter of the American Planning Association at the University of Colorado Denver.
March 6 Update:
A DenverInfill reader alerted me to the fact that the morning of Saturday, March 16 is Denver’s big St. Patrick’s Day Parade which begins at 10 AM and goes right past Union Station. There’s no way I can compete with that, so I’ve changed the tour time to 3:00 PM. This should allow people to go to the parade and then do my tour afterwards or, at least, allow the crowd around Union Station area to clear out before my tour begins.
Ken,
You mention the Union Station project station will open in 2014. The Fast Tracks web site says the East and Gold lines (who are the commuter rail lines first scheduled for termination at the Union Station) will not open for service until 2016 (which seems exceeding long). Do you mean Union Station will open the bus facility and perhaps service the Amtrak line in 2014? Or is it possible the East and Gold lines will open sooner than planned? They are certainly making great progress! Hopefully we’ve learned something from the West line whose construction has been essentially complete for well over a year except for the parking garages at Wadsworth and Sheridan which I don’t think were needed to open the line. In any case, I am pleased if something opens at Union Station in 2014. I have been extremely impressed with the speed and quality of the work that’s been done so far by Kiewit.
Dan, the DUS project will be complete in 2014, in that:
the Light Rail Station will be finished (and is already accommodating the SW, SE, Central, and soon W lines)
the Commuter Rail Station will be finished (and accommodating in 2014 Amtrak and private excursion trains, and in 2016 the Gold, East, and portions of NW and North lines)
the Bus Facility (replacing Market Street Station)
the Public Spaces (Wynkoop Plaza, 17th Street Gardens)
the Renovated Historic Station (train hall, retail/restaurants, hotel, etc.)
In other words, everything will be done in 2014 in terms of physical construction, but that it will be two additional years after the project is complete before several of the commuter rail lines coming into DUS will begin operating. Everything else, however, will be up and running in 2014.
Ken, I’m really looking forward to taking another one of your great Union Station tours. DUS is the most important project in decades for Denver. It will take several more years to build out the private development spaces, and it’ll be fun to watch the Platte Valley become central as the city’s crossroads. A people place, day and night. Thanks for showing and telling us the big story, Ken.
That’s great – that’s just next year! It will seem a little barren without the added trains, but perhaps there is hope for speeding that up considering how fast and efficient the private sector like Kiewit is where they are completing these projects way ahead of schedule. Thanks Ken.
Replacing Market Street bus station, and putting Amtrak back into the historic station building, will certainly put a lot of people in the complex, before the Fastracks commuter rail lines are operating.
If you want more trains before 2016, figure out how to revive Ski Train 🙂
New to the site. Is there a sign up sheet?
Nope. Whoever shows up… that’s our tour group.
Saturday March 16th is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which goes down Wynkoop st. It will be a mad house at 10am down there.
ooh, thanks for the heads-up on that, Mike. I’ll probably change the time.
Will Greyhound and other intercity bus lines serve the station, or will they stay in their current facility
Bill, Greyhound buses will have a gate they will pull into at DUS to pick up passengers, but they are not relocating their facility to DUS. They are supposedly searching around the I-25/Alameda area for a future new facility site.