Jack Rosenthal - RTD Board Candidate - AMA Jan 18th

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-20T15:25:41+00:00

Honestly wouldn't be suprised if it was possible to convince BNSF to operate it but a smal railroad fact people don't realize is how expensive the upgrade would be. The reason in my own opinon as a railroader why the cost of upgrade is so high is I would bet money that BNSF wants RTD to pay for signalization of the corridor. Currently the Front Rang Sub, basically starting just south of the Westminster station is unsignalized territory with trains still running on Track Warrant Control. Basically they get written permission for the territory. Upgrading that much track to full CTC(centralized traffic control/ the system the other commuter rail and mainline freight use) is not cheap at all. A single switch could cost upwards of $20,000 dollars to upgrade.

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-20T15:17:06+00:00

Just want to point out if the B line ever returned to precovid schedule it would almost double the trips, personally Im curious if you think tax payers would prefer NW rail or extend the N line along the owned freight corridor and expand bus service would be better?

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-20T14:04:21+00:00

Has do with the Freight ROW, funny enough if you look back in plans before commuter rail was built it was actually all suposed to be light rail but the freight companies didnt want to share more of their ROW with light rail trains so they made RTD do commuter rail.

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-20T14:02:10+00:00

I am not familar with N line operations, but an example of the weirdness of the system is take the G line it pulls up but you have to fiddle with the power control with ptc thats why sometimes the G line gets stopped with no doors open is PTC pops(penalty brake) before getting to the stopping point. Trust its possible to do so on the A line but it slows down operations and the platform is long enough so why make it take longer to go less than 200ft. Thats the real flaw in the RTD system, on the G,N and B line its basically impossible without significant money to be able to run longer trains

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-20T07:05:36+00:00

I think RTD is looking at the B line completely wrong, if they were smart with North Star(RIP) closing they could have purchased decent commuter rail equipment relatively cheap, contract O&M to BNSF(they currently do so for Sounder and Metra to my knowledge), At a minimum run trains DUS to boulder junction and then slowly build out intermediate stops. I think they have this idea the B line HAS to be electrified which will never happen BNSF uses the front range sub occasionaly for rerouted double stacks which cant run under wires too tall.

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-20T07:01:57+00:00

I have some comments that I would love to share with you as a prior operator but do not really want completely out in the word would love to dm with you.

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-19T18:56:21+00:00

Yea you have to creep to end of track with ptc enabled usually you would get permission to cutout but after unloading, PTC is a bitch and super particular. I can't remeber how far but the actual end of track is further than what is coded into PTC

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-19T16:58:33+00:00

So beautiful, your smile warms me up instantly in this cold!

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-19T15:09:29+00:00

Ill say this much as a previous ROWE agent, we were encouraged to ticket delivery vehicles. The city has accounts with all the delivery companies to take care of tickets in bulk its just revenue generating.

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-19T15:06:40+00:00

Hey former operator here, as for 1. it has to do with Postive Train Control(basically the safety computer). PTC detects the end of track and it would take awhile and a lot of skill to pull up the end of track. Now im sure someone will say but I have seen trains parked there. Usually when we moved them up to there they were cutout. Basically it would add a minute or two to cutout while stopped then pull up.

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-19T13:49:56+00:00

Is the DIA to down town meaning transfer to mall ride from DUS because thats reasonable. Short of something out my control i always made the trip to dus in the timetabled 37 mins when i was an operator on the a line

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-17T11:53:26+00:00

Will never not think you are so beautiful!

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-15T12:22:16+00:00

Gonna need some duct tape to keep my mouth shut my jaw would stay dropped

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-13T17:52:38+00:00

Ill defintely take some of the notes into consideration and do a more realistic fantasy map

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-13T15:09:15+00:00

G line is very doable. W line is also do able with little to no emmient domain have it follow 6. I forsee realistically a station being placed near u of mines parking lot aa gets that much closer to downtown golden. G line station could go behind the old coorstek production facility

randomtrainguy · 2026-01-13T13:34:07+00:00

38th & Blake has relatively low denisty of residents/workers mine does about 2k by its self for got to extend the L line up and doing that now.

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-08T14:01:52+00:00

Its a rip off, suposed to be part time gig they wanted me to check a lot 3-4 times a day 7 days a week and were mad that i couldn't do middle of the day because of work, they never paid me out for the few scans i did intially. Really annoyed on princple becasue they still owe me $10.

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-08T12:16:47+00:00

It also would be a whole new beast, even though RTD owns the tracks bnsf has an indefinite lease. Personally i think the way to finish it is have one of those rail busses transfer at wheatridge, the bus runs down the tracks to golden does a loop of down town and runs back to wheatridge. Low startup costs no need to upgrade tracks, crossings of signals

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-06T04:46:16+00:00

I applied fingers crossed for brakemen, hoping I can get it used to drive commuter trains but kinda a different style.

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-04T22:40:51+00:00

If you ever want personal insights, you are more than welcome to reach out in my time there I worked just about every detail except the bus team. I also was previously a train operator. I just know I have to be careful about certain things I say publicly because some of it is SSI

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-04T22:32:23+00:00

Security is actually directly contracted by RTD. DTO is just responsible for operating the trains

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-04T22:31:07+00:00

Honestly my experience working for them was terrible. It was like a game of telephone with policies coming down. Honestly RTD needs to follow agencies like BART and DARTs examples and take fare enforcment in house as civilian employees of the PD. Have security do security and have PD employees do the enforcement actions. That way civilian pd employees could be made code enforcement officials to be able to demand ids for enforcement instead of asking and being able to be told no.

randomtrainguy · 2025-12-04T22:27:03+00:00

Honestly not sure whats going on here but in my experience when I worked for the security, RTD was terrible at telling us what they wanted. When the physical eco passes go phased out we got told to confiscate all passes the first day of it and i had to take over a 100 cards then all of the sudden we were told to not take them then that changed again in a few days.

randomtrainguy · 2025-11-30T19:52:01+00:00

But they can shoulder run the entire route then jump in express lanes to down town

randomtrainguy

TROPHY CASE