With RTD’s A-Line now complete, we were finally able to take photos of the Denver Airport Station as it is now open to the public. We’ve had a couple of posts previewing the station but today, we are going to look at the actual platforms in detail.
First up, the glass canopy that covers the station. It’s big, unique, and beautiful. The glass ceiling will completely shelter passengers going in and coming out of Denver International Airport.
When looking out of the station, you will notice that there is a large empty space with some multi colored landscaping. This is room for expansion for things such as high speed rail. However, there are no plans for what this space is going to be used for at the moment.
In the case that four car trains are used, like this past weekend, there is some additional shelter for passengers outside of the canopy. It really is a beautiful sight seeing two four-car trains parked at the station.
This doesn’t wrap up our coverage of the A-Line. Stay tuned for a final recap on the whole project with some more new photos!
Looks pretty amazing. What a beautiful elegant addition to DIA!!
It hard to tell from the photos…Is there only one set of tracks coming into the station?
Or is that another set of tracks right up next to the canopy?
That wasn’t very clear…let me rephrase that.
Does the second set of tracks come all the way in under the canopy? Or does it end where that smaller shelter is?
Hi Dan. There is room under the glass canopy for two platforms–a west platform and an east platform–each providing access to a pair of tracks, for a total of four tracks. Currently only the west platform is built with its two tracks, both of which extend the same distance in under the canopy. The east platform with its two tracks could be built someday for a transit line not yet planned. Both of those eastern tracks would extend the same distance in under the canopy as the west platform’s two tracks.
It’s a very interesting piece of future-proofing. I doubt that it will ever be used. Additional transit lines will be much closer to Denver than the airport, which is in a rural farm area. If they ever build high-speed rail, the first line will run north-south from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, and the airport will be way too far out of the way. I suppose if they also build the east-west line to the mountains, they might use this.
I was told the “future” tracks could be used for an express rail line from DIA to downtown with few or no stops. The current line would remain a local line with the current number of stops, possibly one or two more depending on future development of the “Aerotropolis” along Pena Blvd. Obviously there is no funding for this now or anytime soon.