At the beginning of the month, RTD announced they were going to have a commuter rail train on display at Denver Union Station. I missed the window to tour the inside of the train however, it is still parked at the station.
The pictures are pretty self explanatory so without further ado, here is RTD and Denver’s new Silverliner V parked at Denver Union Station!
Looking a little bit north, the catenary overhead wire system is starting to take shape. Because of the heavier gauge trains, the overhead wire system also substantially larger than what we are used to seeing on the lightrail system. Personally, I have a thing for overhead wires and find this to be an amazing sight.
As a bonus, the Amtrak was pulling in just as I was getting ready to move on.
Because the commuter rail lines are still under construction, it’s a rare sight to see two trains parked under the canopy. What a treat!
Before you know it, 2016 will be here and Denver Union Station will be busy with commuters and visitors!
Great post, thanks for the work. Just out of curiosity, how will passengers know where to catch their trains? Will they be directed to a certain track number or a platform number? How are the tracks or platforms numbered at the station? If you don’t know, no probs, it’s not important.
Keep up the great work, it’s much appreciated.
The tracks/platforms are numbered. Just look at the schedule screens and they’ll point you to the right track based on your destination.
But, since I live in Abu Dhabi, that’s going to be difficult 🙂
Tracks 1 & 2 are East Rail Line to the airport; Track 3 is North Metro Line to Commerce city, Northglenn and Thornton; Tracks 4 & 5 are heavy-rail for Amtrak; Track 6 is Northwest Rail to Westminster and, eventually, Boulder and Longmont; Tracks 7 & 8 are Gold Line to Arvada and Wheat Ridge.
Thanks, Kevin 🙂
Really nice photos.
A clarification. The reason the overhead wires are heavy-duty is that they are high-voltage AC, rather than low-voltage DC. This allows the system to be operated with an extremely small number of substations — I think the East Rail Line only has two.
High-voltage AC is therefore popular for routes which run a very long distance. But it’s unpopular for routes with road crossings (such as the light rail lines in Denver), because if a truck hits the 25 kV AC line, yeeow!