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Description of RTD's new Denver Union Station
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<META "authors"="D. Curtis and Doris M. Willoughby">
<META "description"=content="RTD,
Denver Union Station description">
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<center>
<H1>Description of RTD's new Denver Union Station<BR></H1>
<H2>by D. Curtis and Doris M. Willoughby</H2>
</center>
<P>
Doris and I tried to visit the new Denver Union Station (DUS) one Saturday.
The purpose was to learn as much as we could before the official opening
(now scheduled for May 9th, with actual use beginning on May 11th)
so we could share it with other blind people, and have
some idea about what I would be facing before I have to use
the station immediately after the opening.
</P><P>
Both Tom Anderson and Gary Van Dorn have been trying to find out what
opportunities there would be before the opening, for NFB
members to tour the station. We assume that no reply meant they
have had no positive result. The weather being satisfactory,
we decided this was the day.
</P><P>
We found guards at both of the entrances we tried, with big fences up
across the entrances. We did learn quite a bit about the station
from walking around above it, and from talking extensively to the
guards.
</P><P>
We did not try the entrance(s) to the old portion of the station,
because it appeared to be well back into the busy construction
zone. One of the guards did say that we might have gotten
in that way, but by that time we were tired.
</P><P>
We will try to describe some of the information we gleaned below.
Please bear in mind that we may have some of this wrong!
</P><P>
We once lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the Cedar River went
right through the middle of down town. The river ran from
northwest to southeast. The people used a system of
“called” directions in downtown e.g., “called north”
was really northwest, etc. This system was widely understood,
and agreed upon. There does not seem to be such a consensus in
Denver, at least among the blind.
</P><P>
Therefore, I will describe the DUS twice, once using the system
I am calling “sun rises in the east”
and a second time using the system I am calling
“sun rises in the north”.
If you want to blow your mind, just try to understand both systems,
or switch back and forth between them. Look what it did to me.
</P>
<h2>
<center>
The “Sun Rises in the East” system
</center>
</h2>
<p>
This is the system which most sighted people who can see the
mountains and the sunrise and sunset seem to use.
</P><P>
First some definitions:
</P><P>
East is the direction of increasing street numbers.
<br>
West is the direction of decreasing street numbers.
<br>
South is toward the Broadway and Colfax intersection.
<br>
North is away from the Broadway and Colfax intersection.
</P><P>
At the north end of the complex is the new (current) location of
the light rail station. This is its permanent location, and has
been for a couple of years. We shall assume that anyone who
is seriously interested in this area is already familiar with it.
Like most of the other light rail stations, it is just tracks
with a long concrete platform and some wheelchair ramps.
</P><P>
North of the light rail station, and beyond a permanent fence
and a several-foot dropoff are some heavy rail freight tracks.
We do not consider these part of the DUS.
</P><P>
Moving south from the light rail station, at the west is the
turn-around for the mall shuttles. This lies immediately east
of 16th Street. It is between 16th Street
and 17th Street, and between the light rail station and Chestnut
Street. Shuttles coming north on 16th Street go east on Chestnut
Street, go north on 17th Street, and then west on a no-name
drive where they let off passengers, and, at the west end,
load passengers to go back south on 16th Street.
</P><P>
Just east of 17th Street is a small building called the Chestnut
Pavilion. It is just north of Chestnut Street, with a nice wide
sidewalk between. Between the sidewalk and the building there
is a little grassy area with some benches. This is the spot
where the incoming Boulder buses have been stopping when the HOV lanes are
outbound, to let off light rail passengers. The Chestnut Pavilion
resembles the 16th Street entrance to the Market Street Station,
but it faces the light rail tracks. Just like the 16th Street
entrance to the Market Street Station, it has a pair of escalators
with stairs in between. The area above the escalators is a
little larger than in the entrance to the Market Street Station
and it has a guard's desk on it. The stairway between the
escalators is wider than in the Market Street Station entrance.
One guard said there was an elevator there, too, but we did not
see it. At the bottom of the escalators and stairs, you are
near the north end of what is called the concourse.
</P><P>
Somewhere way east of the Chestnut Pavilion, is the north
bus entrance/exit to the underground bus loop.
It connects to 18th Street.
</P><P>
At the south side of the light rail station, and a little ways
north of the Chestnut Pavilion are some concrete stacks (think smokestacks).
These are several feet in diameter, and some may be fat enough
to hold an elevator. Most of these are fifteen to twenty feet
tall, and carry air/exhaust fumes up and down to the bus underground
loop below. It is likely that when the station is in operation,
there will be the noise of moving air coming from the top of some
of these columns. If so, these may make good landmarks. These
columns are in a line that extends eastward a block or so above
the drive in and out of the underground bus loop.
</P><P>
As with the 16th Street entrance to the Market Street Station,
when you enter the Chestnut Pavilion from the light rail station,
you soon come to the top of the stairs and the top of the escalators.
</P><P>
Down in the concourse, behind the escalators, are a pair of rest rooms.
Except for some restrooms in the old part of the Union Station,
these are the only rest rooms in the whole place.
</P><P>
Also, behind the escalators are some supervisors' offices, and,
north of them, the north end of the underground bus loop.
</P><P>
The underground bus loop surrounds the concourse, and like the concourse
is over a thousand feet (maybe three blocks) long. The concourse
is forty or fifty feet wide, with eleven bus gates on each side.
There are no bus gates on the ends. With the Chestnut Pavilion
near the north end, the concourse extends southward under Chestnut Street,
under a plaza between Chestnut Street and Wewatta Street, under
Wewatta Street, under the Wewatta Pavilion (which resembles the
Chestnut Pavilion), on under the heavy rail tracks, and apparently
clear to the old part of Union Station.
</P><P>
The heavy rail tracks are apparently above the concourse, but
they are below street level by four or five feet. Thus, neither
pedestrians nor buses can cross them at street level. Therefore,
17th Street, 18th Street, and probably also 19th Street are closed
at the heavy rail tracks. These tracks include the Amtrak tracks, the
commuter rail tracks for the trains to DIA, and the commuter rail
tracks that will serve the northwest line and the north line.
The tracks end before they get to 16th Street, so 16th Street will
remain open where the tracks once were.
</P><P>
I am unclear about exactly where the concourse ends at the south end,
but the underground bus loop goes around the south end of the concourse.
</P><P>
This is apparently so, because one of the guards said that the
heavy rail passengers apparently go down into the concourse to get
from the old part of Union Station to their trains. Also, RTD
passengers go south on the concourse under all the streets and tracks
to get to the north-metro commuter rail trains, the Amtrak trains, and the
airport commuter rail trains (in that order).
Apparently, there are escalators and stairs from the concourse up
to the train platforms.
</P><P>
Buses also have to go under the heavy rail tracks to get to the
south bus entry/exit drive.
</P><P>
At ground level, between Chestnut Street and Wewatta Street in
the plaza, there are about six rows of skylights
and two other little structures sticking up.
The further south structure is for the fire control center, and the
further north structure is an emergency exit, which apparently
has stairs coming up from the concourse.
Each row of skylights extends approximately the full width
of the concourse.
There are several
benches between the skylights.
</P><P>
The Wewatta Pavilion is on the south side of Wewatta Street facing Wewatta Street.
</P><P>
Back down in the concourse, we understand that gate 1 is near
the south end on the
west side, and the gate numbers proceed northward to gate 11 at
the north end on the west side. Gate 12 is near the north end on the
east side of the concourse, and the gate numbers proceed to the
south to Gate 22 near the south end on the east side of the
concourse.
</P><P>
Somewhere near the south end of the concourse is the south
bus entrance/exit from the underground bus loop
to (I think) 19th Street.
This is far
enough south to be south of the heavy rail tracks, and to allow direct
access to the HOV lanes on I-25.
</P><P>
We understand that Greyhound and also Amtrak will each have a
bus gate on the concourse.
</P>
<h2>
<center>
The “Sun Rises in the North” system
</center>
</h2>
<p>
This is the system which some blind people use,
because they find it convenient to assume that the streets
in downtown are related to the avenues in the rest of Denver.
</P><P>
First some definitions:
</P><P>
North is the direction of increasing street numbers.
<br>
South is the direction of decreasing street numbers.
<br>
East is toward the Broadway and Colfax intersection.
<br>
West is away from the Broadway and Colfax intersection.
</P><P>
At the west end of the complex is the new (current) location of
the light rail station. This is its permanent location, and has
been for a couple of years. We shall assume that anyone who
is seriously interested in this area is already familiar with it.
Like most of the other light rail stations, it is just tracks
with a long concrete platform and some wheelchair ramps.
</P><P>
West of the light rail station, and beyond a permanent fence
and a several-foot dropoff are some heavy rail freight tracks.
We do not consider these part of the DUS.
</P><P>
Moving east from the light rail station, at the south is the
turn-around for the mall shuttles. This lies immediately north
of 16th Street. It is between 16th Street
and 17th Street, and between the light rail station and Chestnut
Street. Shuttles coming west on 16th Street go north on Chestnut
Street, go west on 17th Street, and then south on a no-name
drive where they let off passengers, and, at the south end,
load passengers to go back east on 16th Street.
</P><P>
Just north of 17th Street is a small building called the Chestnut
Pavilion. It is just west of Chestnut Street, with a nice wide
sidewalk between. Between the sidewalk and the building there
is a little grassy area with some benches. This is the spot
where the incoming Boulder buses have been stopping when the HOV lanes are
outbound, to let off light rail passengers. The Chestnut Pavilion
resembles the 16th Street entrance to the Market Street Station,
but it faces the light rail tracks. Just like the 16th Street
entrance to the Market Street Station, it has a pair of escalators
with stairs in between. The area above the escalators is a
little larger than in the entrance to the Market Street Station
and it has a guard's desk on it. The stairway between the
escalators is wider than in the Market Street Station entrance.
One guard said there was an elevator there, too, but we did not
see it. At the bottom of the escalators and stairs, you are
near the west end of what is called the concourse.
</P><P>
Somewhere way up north of the Chestnut Pavilion, is the west
bus entrance/exit to the underground bus loop.
It connects to 18th Street.
</P><P>
At the east side of the light rail station, and a little ways
west of the Chestnut Pavilion are some concrete stacks (think smokestacks).
These are several feet in diameter, and some may be fat enough
to hold an elevator. Most of these are fifteen to twenty feet
tall, and carry air/exhaust fumes up and down to the bus underground
loop below. It is likely that when the station is in operation,
there will be the noise of moving air coming from the top of some
of these columns. If so, these may make good landmarks. These
columns are in a line that extends northward a block or so above
the drive in and out of the underground bus loop.
</P><P>
As with the 16th Street entrance to the Market Street Station,
when you enter the Chestnut Pavilion from the light rail station,
you soon come to the top of the stairs and the top of the escalators.
</P><P>
Down in the concourse, behind the escalators, are a pair of rest rooms.
Except for some restrooms in the old part of the Union Station,
these are the only rest rooms in the whole place.
</P><P>
Also, behind the escalators are some supervisors' offices, and,
west of them, the west end of the underground bus loop.
</P><P>
The underground bus loop surrounds the concourse, and like the concourse
is over a thousand feet (maybe three blocks) long. The concourse
is forty or fifty feet wide, with eleven bus gates on each side.
There are no bus gates on the ends. With the Chestnut Pavilion
near the west end, the concourse extends eastward under Chestnut Street,
under a plaza between Chestnut Street and Wewatta Street, under
Wewatta Street, under the Wewatta Pavilion (which resembles the
Chestnut Pavilion), on under the heavy rail tracks, and apparently
clear to the old part of Union Station.
</P><P>
The heavy rail tracks are apparently above the concourse, but
they are below street level by four or five feet. Thus, neither
pedestrians nor buses can cross them at street level. Therefore,
17th Street, 18th Street, and probably also 19th Street are closed
at the heavy rail tracks. These tracks include the Amtrak tracks, the
commuter rail tracks for the trains to DIA, and the commuter rail
tracks that will serve the northwest line and the north line.
The tracks end before they get to 16th Street, so 16th Street will
remain open where the tracks once were.
</P><P>
I am unclear about exactly where the concourse ends at the east end,
but the underground bus loop goes around the east end of the concourse.
</P><P>
This is apparently so, because one of the guards said that the
heavy rail passengers apparently go down into the concourse to get
from the old part of Union Station to their trains. Also, RTD
passengers go east on the concourse under all the streets and tracks
to get to the north-metro commuter rail trains, the Amtrak trains, and the
airport commuter rail trains (in that order).
Apparently, there are escalators and stairs from the concourse up
to the train platforms.
</P><P>
Buses also have to go under the heavy rail tracks to get to the
east bus entry/exit drive.
</P><P>
At ground level, between Chestnut Street and Wewatta Street in
the plaza, there are about six rows of skylights
and two other little structures sticking up.
The further east structure is for the fire control center, and the
further west structure is an emergency exit, which apparently
has stairs coming up from the concourse.
Each row of skylights extends approximately the full width
of the concourse.
There are several
benches between the skylights.
</P><P>
The Wewatta Pavilion is on the east side of Wewatta Street facing Wewatta Street.
</P><P>
Back down in the concourse, we understand that gate 1 is near
the east end on the
south side, and the gate numbers proceed westward to gate 11 at
the west end on the south side. Gate 12 is near the west end on the
north side of the concourse, and the gate numbers proceed to the
east to Gate 22 near the east end on the north side of the
concourse.
</P><P>
Somewhere near the east end of the concourse is the east
bus entrance/exit from the underground bus loop
to (I think) 19th Street.
This is far
enough east to be east of the heavy rail tracks, and to allow direct
access to the HOV lanes on I-25.
</P><P>
We understand that Greyhound and also Amtrak will each have a
bus gate on the concourse.
</P>
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