Rethinking the Central Corridor Extension
What if we stopped trying to solve the geometry problem of getting the L Line down Downing to 38th & Blake and instead revived the idea of extending the Central Corridor northeast toward Central Park Station?
The alignment I quickly sketched would only require track on ~2 blocks of Downing before jogging east on 31st/MLK until turning north onto Quebec to weave into Central Park to connect with the A Line.
While surely more expensive, it also seems both more feasible and like a potentially much more useful project: better neighborhood coverage for NE Denver, a parallel approach between the airport/CBD, connections to the future Colorado BRT service, and no need to force trains through the awkward Downing geometry.
The proposal isn’t without precedent either – it actually aligns with some of the original light rail plans from 1990 to serve Stapleton before it closed and opposition arose from neighborhoods along the proposed route.
Thoughts?