I walked into Cal Marsella's office and barely had time to turn on my tape recorder before he began talking about his agency. It's not that he isn't willing to talk about himself, he just has so much energy and enthusiasm about the Denver Regional Transporation District (RTD) and its FasTracks program that he just can't wait to tell you about it.

FasTracks is RTD's 12-year plan that will add to the system 119 miles of commuter and light rail, 18 miles of BRT and a whopping 21,000 new parking spaces at rail stations along the new lines. Marsella breaks down the plan easily into its constituent parts, but the ones he's most excited about are those currently underway.

Denver's Dinosaur

RTD first explored the light rail realm with a small, five-mile section bisecting the downtown, then it opened up an 8.7 mile southwest corridor in 2000 and ridership went through the roof.

"We projected 8,400 riders a day," says Marsella, "We opened with over 12,000 and now we're up to about 18,000 on this line. We started with 14 vehicles and we had to order 12 more within four weeks of opening because we just got blown away."

Denver followed up this stunning success with its southeast corridor, better known by its name T-Rex (short for Transportation Expansion Project), which is on pace to open Nov. 17 this year, on time and on budget.

Originally the plan just called for a light rail investment, but a gubernatorial change created a desire to see expansion of the highways as well and soon a deal was struck between RTD and the Colorado DOT. Now this $1.7 billion project includes additional lanes on the highway, rebuilt bridges, utilities and drainage — oh yeah, and that little matter of 19.5 miles of light rail.

"The partnership was extraordinary," says Marsella. "We originally projected a startup date of 2008, but the bid came in 22 months earlier than we anticipated.