DIA sues RTD over lightrail to airport project

Denver Post-A $53 million contract dispute between Denver International Airport and the Regional Transportation District over the costs of bringing passenger trains to the airport has escalated into a court battle.

DIA filed suit after getting what it considered an unfavorable ruling from a hearing officer. Hoping to recover the full amount, DIA has excluded the entire $53 million from its cost estimates for its terminal redevelopment project, which is already more than $40 million over budget.

The dispute centers on the last stretch of RTD's East Rail Line, which ends at the airport. The airport and the transit system disagree about who should pay how much for a long list of items along that stretch: excavation, roads, bridges, walls, drainage and the train station platform.

For DIA, a victory in court is critical to a project budget that has already grown from $500 million to $544 million.

I bet you think you know where I'm going with this. You think i'm going to say who cares? public transportation is for poor people anyway, why would a world class denver sports blogger like myself need the three ring circus that is public transport? And most of the time you would be right. Because the worst type of human beings use public transit. Usually you are lucky if you ride and don't get stabbed by anything from a hypodermic needle to homeless bum's crank shaft.Its an absolute bloodbath of uncomfortable to downright dangerous situations.

 But this is the line to the airport. The one line i actually care about getting built. Do you know how far away DIA is from Denver? its practically in Missouri (yes I skipped all of Nebraska, its that far away), a huge time investment just to drive there out in the middle of the plains. The wind gusts about half the speed of sound and you're afraid its going to flip your car the whole time. Absolutely brutal. Last week i hit a tumbleweed, a fucking tumbleweed. Think about that for a second. It was my jeep vs the tumbleweed coming at my car like Von Miller on meth and its safe to say that tumbleweed won. So if I can throw some headphones on and leave it up to someone else to get me there. I'll take the possible homeless/ naked crazy people/ catastrophic train accident to be able to be that little bit more lazy. Its that much of a problem in my life.